9 years since last execution but abolition still dragging

 The question remains as to why the death penalty is still on the books though it is no longer practised.

From Elesh Vengadesan-Lee

Today marks nine years since the last officially acknowledged execution in Malaysia.

On May 24, 2017, two men were hanged at Sungai Buloh Prison. One of them, 48-year-old Yong Kar Mun, had been convicted of discharging a firearm during a robbery, while the other was convicted of murder. His name was not released.

The question remains as to why the death penalty is still on the books though it is no longer being practised?

A moratorium was put in place in 2018 and the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 saw several laws amended to remove the mandatory death penalty.

However, even though we are no longer carrying out executions, people can still technically be sentenced to death.

That is why we were treated to the spectacle of Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal calling for the government to consider the death penalty for drink drivers who cause fatal accidents.

He was, of course, engaged in political opportunism, knowing that such an issue might be racially polarising, which appears to be a common trend among Perikatan Nasional’s elected representatives.

His argument that it would be a deterrent holds no water. Scientific consensus and global studies indicate that the death penalty has no significant deterrent effect on crime compared with life imprisonment.

For example, the failed war on drugs. A majority of the 900-plus people still on death row are there for drug-related crimes. These convicts are almost always drug mules and addicts, not the middlemen, and certainly not the kingpins.

We also have questions raised over compromised evidence-gathering, such as planted evidence and confessions obtained through violence.

Last year, civil society organisations engaged with deputy law minister M Kulasegaran to discuss the future of the death penalty in this country.

Is it too much to hope that one day soon, it shall be fully abolished? - FMT

Elesh Vengadesan-Lee is a death penalty abolitionist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.