Decriminalising suicide likely to be tabled this Parliament sitting

 

PARLIAMENT | Putrajaya hopes to be able to decriminalise suicide attempts in this Parliament session, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh.

He said aside from amending Section 309 of the Penal Code, which criminalises suicide attempts, the government also intends to amend the Mental Health Act for a more holistic approach to the issue.

“The government through the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has conducted an in-depth study on the criminalisation of suicide attempts under Section 309 of the Penal Code and the suggestion to abolish this provision.

“Following that study, the government is currently finalising the policies and also several other bills related to this effort.

“Finally, as our next step, a cabinet memorandum will be presented to the cabinet for approval soon and after that, all relevant bills will be tabled in Parliament.

“On the timeline, we hope that the bills will be brought in this parliamentary sitting to be tabled, debated and passed,” Ramkarpal said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Long-standing problem

He was answering a question from Kelvin Yii (Pakatan Harapan-Bandar Kuching) who had asked for an update on the government’s progress in decriminalising suicide.

Putrajaya has been talking about decriminalising suicide attempts since the Pakatan Harapan government back in 2019.

Ramkarpal (above) said mental health issues have been a long-standing problem in Malaysia which saw a significant spike during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2021, the Health Ministry’s psychosocial helpline received almost five times more calls than it did the year before, he said.

From January and December 2021, the helpline received 212,319 calls, compared to the same period in 2020, which saw the helpline receiving 44,061 calls.

Ramkarpal said research has shown that individuals experiencing depression are 20 times more at risk to have suicidal behaviour and die from suicide.

“Hence, it is clear that the issue of suicide attempts should be treated as a public health matter and not a criminal act.

“Those who attempt suicide should be brought to the hospital for further evaluation and given appropriate treatment. They should not be charged with a crime because they are in an unstable mental state,” he said.

Immediate action

Ramkarpal said the Mental Health Act also needs to be amended to address suicide attempts.

It is currently problematic due to its definition of those who attempt suicide which could hinder enforcement agencies from going into immediate action to rescue the individual.

“So in order to make the rescue efforts easier, the Mental Health Act needs to be amended to remove the definition of someone who attempts suicide.

“This is to enable enforcement officers such as the police or fire department to immediately rescue persons who are trying to commit suicide to bring them to the hospital to evaluate them within 24 hours,” he explained.

In an additional question, Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh (Perikatan Nasional-Besut) asked why the need to remove Section 309 of the Penal Code when there is Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

Unsound mind

Section 342 of the CPC deals with the procedure where the accused is suspected to be of “unsound mind”.

Che Mohamad said if someone is found to be of unsound mind under Section 342, they can be released, taken care of and controlled so that they do not harm themselves or others.

“That means we already have some form of control under the CPC so we do not need to get rid of Section 309 of the Penal Code,” he said.

Ramkarpal replied that the intention of Section 342 of the CPC is very different from Section 309 of the Penal Code.

“Section 342 is about evaluating someone for the purpose of determining whether that individual can make a plea in court before trial.

“Section 309 is a section criminalising suicide attempts. In the situation where someone tried to commit suicide, it is an emergency where efforts must be taken on the spot.

“It cannot be like in Section 342; here we send someone to Tanjung Rambutan to be evaluated for a month, which can be extended,” he said.

As such, the deputy minister said he disagreed with the Besut lawmaker’s view that Section 342 of the CPC can be used to address the mental health problems leading to suicide attempts. - Mkini