I don't believe in death penalty, but…

 

I remember reading about Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain many years ago and felt so much pity for him and his family.

The late Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) student was murdered by his fellow students in such a brutal way. I would repeat it here, but I think many of you are already familiar with the torture that he went through at the hands of his murderers.

In the last few days, we have all seen in the media that the six former UPNM students who were initially convicted of causing death with no intent to kill have now had their conviction changed by a three-person Court of Appeal bench to full-blown murder. Their 18-year prison sentence has also now been converted to death by hanging.

There seem to be a lot of people on social media who agree with this new development. I wouldn’t blame them. Looking at the public explanation of the bullying that was inflicted on Zulfarhan, I am sure many are very angry at the six bullies.

Another 12 students who were charged with causing injury to Zulfarhan had their three-year sentence increased to four.

Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain

Reading the news reports on how the bench came to their ruling, again I stress that I agree the torture they inflicted against Zulfarhan was severe and inhumane.

Dishing out punishment that is equal in severity does seem just, especially if you think of the family members and loved ones of the victim and how they feel about the whole thing.

Capital punishment

This leads me to the dilemma that I have when it comes to the death penalty. Being a self-proclaimed progressive individual, in theory, I have always been against capital punishment when it comes to the justice system.

I have been publicly vocal about this too, writing several times in the media about how I feel about it, even on this platform on Malaysiakini.

I believe in rehabilitation more than punishment and the term restorative justice is very appealing to me. This form of punishment emphasises repairing the harm that has been caused by the crime.

It allows the offender to be accountable and take responsibility for what they did, while also letting the victims (or their families) be a part of the process.

The fact that our current government abolished the mandatory death sentence is evidence that the country is moving progressively forward (although the penalty is still available for the courts to use, as seen in the Zulfarhan murder case).

The death penalty has always been seen as a punishment that is not aligned with human rights because it doesn’t allow for redemption or rehabilitation.

Zulfarhan’s father Zulkarnain Idros

However, I can imagine how it would be a challenge to convince Zulfarhan’s family members of the merits of restorative justice (again, I don’t fault them).

There is so much belief in how justice should be about an eye for an eye in our society that creating awareness for a different form is difficult, and a case so clear cut like Zulfarhan’s just warrants the emotions that it should be an eye for an eye.

Our education system

There are many reasons why we should argue against the death penalty and capital punishment.

The fact that it can be open to abuse with a risk of a lack of transparency and if there are wrongful convictions and bias, especially when it comes to the marginalised and underprivileged, which are big concerns we cannot deny or cover up.

However, at the moment, our heart goes out to Zulfarhan and his family. What happened was horrific, made no sense, and was totally unnecessary. If anything, the real discussion we need to have is what happened to cause these 18 university students to act so barbaric and inhumane.

Is there something wrong with our education system? How about the family institution?

These students were supposed to be the future of our nation having been accepted to study in one of our country’s universities. Yet, the way they decided to handle a simple issue of a missing laptop shows that something went wrong somewhere.

There are other cases like this, such as the death of teenager T Nhaveen and naval cadet J Soosaimanicckam.

T Nhaveen

We need to get to the bottom of it to make sure we avoid any such tragic incidents from happening ever again because these are senseless deaths.

At this particular time, I would much rather discuss improving our education system and the morality of our youth rather than talk about the abolishment of the death penalty and capital punishment. - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.