SHORTLY after Pakatan Harapan took over Putrajaya in May last year, the new administration said it would abolish the death penalty.

The move was hailed by rights advocates as a positive step forward for Malaysia, restoring its sometimes-blemished human rights track record in the eyes of the international community.

However, murmurs of public disapproval soon grew to outraged calls by politicians and groups for capital punishment to be retained.

The major argument for proponents of capital punishment remains that removing it would inadvertently signal a weakened stance on certain violent crimes and drug trafficking, two offences which currently prescribe the mandatory death sentence.

This, in turn, could open the floodgates to higher incidents of crime, they said.

One of the more vocal proponents of the death penalty include former inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor, who suggested the cabinet put on hold its decision to repeal capital punishment and instead hold a referendum.

“If there is evidence that an accused committed murder, he or she deserves an appropriate and equal punishment,” he told a press conference last week.

“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?”

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong responded by saying that a referendum would not be held and that the decision to abolish the death penalty would be a collective decision of the cabinet.

The bill to scrap the death penalty is expected to be tabled in the next Parliament sitting, which will convene on March 11. Putrajaya has put in place a moratorium on all executions.

Lawyer and human rights activist Charles Hector Fernandez said many Malaysians who support capital punishment do not realise that the threat of death has not deterred crimes, citing drug trafficking as the most obvious example.

This is because most of those found guilty and hanged have been merely drug mules, who were either enticed by money or even tricked into carrying drugs into the country, he said.

The drug kingpins rarely ever get caught or prosecuted.

Fernandez, who heads Malaysians against Death Penalty & Torture, said currently, drugs found on a person are presumed to belong to that individual.

“You literally cannot prove on a balance of probabilities that it is not your drugs, or you did not know how the drugs came to be in your bag or car or room or that you are not involved in drug trafficking,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“In criminal cases, the prosecution has the burden of proof, the burden to prove all elements of the crime.

“(But) the Dangerous Drug Act 1952 goes against this norm. It unjustly shifts the burden (of proof) to the accused. It is unjust, and really it must be repealed.”

Fernandez and other opponents of the death penalty said it is this provision under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 that often sends suspects to the gallows without certainty of guilt.

Malaysia is among 23 countries, including most of its Southeast Asian countries, that maintain the death penalty.

A total of 32 offences currently carry the death sentence – 12 of which are mandatory – while the rest are at the discretion of the judges, who can sentence convicts to life behind bars.

There are currently 1,267 death row inmates nationwide, 932 of whom are drug traffickers, 317 cases involve murder, 13 illegal possession of guns, five kidnapping, nine involved in declarations of war on a head of state, and two for collective robberies and murders. One person was charged under the now-repealed Internal Security Act.

According to the Prisons Department, the pardons board of various states reduced the sentence of 165 people who were sentenced to death from 2007 to 2017.

During the same time, 35 executions took place. Those who had their death sentences overturned were usually given life or 20 years’ jail.

Should the death penalty be repealed, Malaysia will join 106 countries to have abolished capital punishment.

Earlier this month, de facto law minister Liew attended a forum where he sought to push forward the notion of “restorative justice” for convicted felons, instead of taking “the easy way out” by killing murderers.

“We have to talk about restorative justice and second chances,” he said, responding to calls from family members of murdered victims for retribution for their loved ones.

“We don’t want to be in the same level as the murderer, because if you support killing, you are also a murderer.” – January 23, 2019.