WHEN you campaign against the death penalty in Southeast Asia, you have to learn to appreciate every piece of good news you get. Goodness knows they are rare when it comes to this issue, in this part of the world.

The news of Malaysia’s de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong announcing that the cabinet has decided to abolish the death penalty popped up in the evening of the World Day Against the Death Penalty (October 10).

I was replying to comments on Facebook at the time – I’d written a post reflecting on the capital punishment situation in Singapore, and drawn flak for it almost immediately from adamantly pro-death penalty Singaporeans.

The minister’s declaration was a bolt from the blue.

This clearly falls under the “good news” category. But I’ve also learnt not to crack open the champagne until everything is put in legally-binding language and the ink is dry.

The first time I heard the Malaysian government hint at rolling back on the death penalty was in 2010, when I was working alongside other Singaporean and Malaysian abolitionists to save a young Sabahan, Yong Vui Kong, who’d been sentenced to death in Singapore for drug trafficking.

They were talking about removing the mandatory death penalty for drug offences. I remember thinking it was terrific, and a great source of hope for change in Singapore.

In 2012/13, Singapore made tweaks to the capital punishment regime and Yong was saved.

The Malaysian government still hadn’t moved on the mandatory death penalty for drug offences. Until Liew’s comments were reported, I’d still been waiting for some concrete action on the mandatory death penalty.

With this announcement, Liew has given abolitionists in Southeast Asia some much-needed hope.

The news of an immediate moratorium on executions in Malaysia is a welcome relief from news of executions carried out, if we even get news at all – just last week, human rights activist M. Ravi posted on Facebook that three individuals would be executed.

I’d heard something similar from the families of other death row inmates. A lawyer for one of the individuals commented on Ravi’s post about his client’s execution. But we still haven’t gotten confirmation from the Singapore Prison Service, nor has there been any statement from the government or report in the news.

This isn’t new for Singapore. In fact, it’s just part and parcel of a situation that’s worsened for abolitionists in recent years.

Since the execution of Sarawakian Kho Jabing for murder in 2016, I’ve seen the gap between the denial of a presidential pardon and the scheduling of an execution shrink, leaving families less time to anticipate the execution and prepare themselves mentally and emotionally, and also depriving anti-death penalty activists of the time and opportunity to act.

Jabing’s lawyers had also been accused of abusing the court process with their eleventh-hour appeals. In August, The Online Citizen reported that a lawyer faced the risk of having to pay costs for including what the prosecution thought to be irrelevant legal content in his written submissions on behalf of his client on death row.

When some friends and I gathered for a candlelight vigil on the night before the execution of Prabagaran Srivijayan – another Malaysian on Singapore’s death row for drug offences – the police came within 15 minutes to confiscate our candles.

Two months later, about 10 of us were called in for questioning. Most of us got warnings for participating in a public assembly without permit; one has been charged for organising the allegedly illegal assembly.

I doubt the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia will have any immediate or short-term impact on Singapore’s capital punishment regime, which is practically one of the pillars of our criminal justice system. But a Malaysia free of the death penalty will find itself in a much less awkward position; it was previously difficult for the Malaysian government to say very much about Malaysians on death row in countries like Singapore precisely because Malaysia itself executes people.

With the death penalty gone, the Malaysian government will have a better footing in fighting for its citizens facing execution abroad. – October 10, 2018.

* Kirsten Han is co-founder of Singapore anti-death penalty advocacy group, We Believe in Second Chances.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.