FORMER inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor urged the government to retain the death penalty.

He suggested the cabinet put on hold its decision to repeal the capital punishment, and instead hold a referendum to hear the views of citizens before a decision is made.

Rahim said his personal stand was to support the death penalty and was disappointed with the Pakatan Harapan government’s plan to abolish it as the move would have consequences.

“If you dare to do it, you bear the consequences. If there is evidence that an accused committed murder, he or she deserves an appropriate and equal punishment,” he said at a press conference today.

He said there were other countries in Asia that still use the death penalty for murder, adding that it was part of Asian culture to emphasise the rights of the victim and the victim’s family.

Repealing the death penalty was something western countries supported but was not applicable in Asia, Rahim continued.

“And how would the families of the victims feel, if a murderer only spent 30 years in jail or life imprisonment while they have lost their loved ones?”

He also said the crime rate would increase if the death penalty was abolished, and believed that retaining the sentence would be a deterrent to severe crime.

“If the government abolishes the death penalty, we lose a deterrent and all we can depend on it a person’s moral and religious strength to prevent crimes from happening.

“What other deterrent is there to prevent people from committing murder?” Rahim said.

The cabinet on November 13 decided that capital punishment will be removed from eight laws covering 33 types of offences that are punishable by death.

The bill to abolish the death penalty will be tabled in the first parliamentary sitting of this year which begins in March, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Liew Vui Keong said recently. – January 15, 2019.