FOR the past 15 years, M. Kalaichelvan has been living with the fear that every visit to his father in prison could possibly be the last time he sees his father alive.

Kalaichelvan’s father has been serving time at the Taiping prison for murder, a crime his family believes he is innocent of and one which led him to be handed the mandatory death sentence.

“We don’t know when he will be executed. Every day we worry.

“That’s why my family back home will visit my father once a week or once in two weeks… you don’t know when the day will finally come,” the 28-year-old told The Malaysian Insight.

Kalaichelvan said that he was overjoyed when he heard the news that the government will be scrapping the death penalty for all offences.

“My mother hasn’t heard yet but she will be happy,” he said.

Kalaichelvan’s father will be one of some 1,200 people currently awaiting execution in Malaysian prisons who will have their lives spared with Putrajaya’s recent announcement.

On Wednesday, de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong said the government will table a bill to abolish capital punishment in the coming parliamentary sitting, which begins next Monday.

He said until the death penalty is abolished, a moratorium on it has been put in place.

Kalaichelvan said his family has never accepted the death sentence his father was handed, and said they would now hope to appeal for his early release.

“I was in Standard 6 when my father went to jail. Only my younger sibling and I finished school. There was no money for us to further our studies.

“I went to work immediately after Form 5 to help pay the RM30,000 debt we took to defend my father (in court),” said the warehouse assistant now working in Singapore.

“Maybe we will have our father back. He has already served so many years,” Kalaichelvan told The Malaysian Insight.

News of the death penalty abolishment also brought great relief to a 68-year-old mother from Sungai Lembing, Pahang, whose son is on death row for drug trafficking.

“It has been 13 years. He was 25 when he went in… a youth who made mistakes,” said the woman, who only gave her surname Yip.

“I am happy. I am sure my son is very happy too, hearing this news. We now have some hope after so many years.

“It is not that he will walk free soon.

“But perhaps one day, he will be able to come out,” said the woman, who added that she was anxious to hear more about the government’s plan.

Lawyer and human rights activist Charles Hector said Pakatan Harapan’s announcement has brought joy and hope for the parents, children, spouses and relatives of 1,267 death row inmates around the country.

“The happiness of parents, children and family members of people, who will no longer be hanged to death… they will now live,” said the coordinator for Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (MADPET).

Lam Kai Cheong, the chairman of Getha Bodhi Care Centre – a Kuantan-based non-governmental organisation that run programmes for prison inmates, including those on death row – said those awaiting execution often lived out the remainder of their days in depression and anxiety.

“Every death row inmate I have met is sad, depressed… they are like that all the time,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“(But) I think they will be happy with the news. It is their only hope,” he said.

Lam said the government has taking a big step forward towards human rights and humanity. – October 12, 2018.