THE death penalty should be totally abolished, as it does not effectively achieve its objective of being deterrence to the commission of serious crimes, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) said today. 

LFL director Zaid Malek said none of the quantitative studies done throughout the world has shown that capital punishment has resulted in a reduction in the incidence of such offences.

“Nothing exemplifies this more than capital punishment for drug-related offences, where low-level drug mules are repeatedly convicted and hanged, while the drug lords behind it remain free to exploit other unsuspecting or vulnerable individuals to replace those hanged,” he said in a statement. 

He said this in a rebuke to MCA Youth leader Heng Zhi Li, who had lauded the party president and Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong for the cabinet’s decision not to fully abolish the death penalty. 

“It is shameful and retrograde that MCA continues to support the brutality of judicial executions,” said Zaid. 

Last week, the government had announced that it has agreed to abolish the mandatory death penalty, and other types of punishment at the court’s discretion would replace it. 

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had said the death penalty in Malaysia remains, but it will no longer be mandatory for some cases and judges will be given discretion when sentencing offenders. 

“We are of the view that everyone deserves a second chance. If there are two options (of sentences), and if the offender is found to be a hardcore drug trafficker to the extent of causing hundreds of thousands of people to die (due to drugs), he can be sentenced to death and allowed to be sent to the gallows,” said the prime minister. 

“However, if the judge, in his discretion, feels the offender should be given a second chance and decides to sentence him to life imprisonment with whipping, he can substitute the mandatory death penalty with that life sentence,” he added. 

Zaid however said the use of cruel and unusual forms of punishment such as the death penalty should not be permitted, as then the state would debase itself to the same level of the criminals it seeks to punish. 

“This of course does not mean that those who commit serious crimes are to go unpunished; that has never been the position. There are effective alternatives such as life imprisonment in lieu of the death penalty.”

He also said that the government’s failure to go further and totally abolish the death penalty would only make it harder to save the lives of Malaysians facing execution abroad. 

This includes Malaysian Pausi Jefridin, who has an IQ of 67 and is facing execution in Singapore’s notorious Changi prison. 

“By totally abolishing the death penalty, Malaysia would have had the moral ascendancy and political leverage to speak up on behalf of these desperate Malaysians.” – June 12, 2022.