“If someone is murdered, the murderer must face the eventuality,” Rahim, the inspector-general of police from 1994 to 1999, said at a press conference here.

“The murderer still goes through the court of law, and it may take years to appeal. But when he takes someone’s life, it is done in seconds.”

Speaking as a former police officer, he said there was no proof that abolishing the death penalty would reduce crime.

“I am 70-plus now. I have seen enough of what goes on in this world. I disagree with Putrajaya,” he said.

Expressing surprise over the proposal, mooted last October, to abolish the death penalty, Rahim said the government should review the decision.

“Retain the death penalty so that crime is under control. As a (former) policeman, it is not true (crime will go down) because crimes are committed due to many reasons.”

He said the West used to impose the death penalty but had abolished it after viewing it as outdated.

He said Malaysians who were against the death penalty did not know the pain felt by the victims’ families.

“It is easy to talk, easy to say abolish the death penalty, but when it happens to them … ‘Alamak, my child died for nothing’.”

Rahim said the majority of Malaysians wanted the death penalty retained. He felt that the government had failed to gather public opinion before deciding at the Cabinet level.

“The decision is too sudden. It is too drastic. Public opinion should be sought before the death penalty is removed.”

He hoped Putrajaya would look at the Philippines which removed the death penalty, causing its drug problems to skyrocket.

He said this prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to order the Philippine police force to kill anyone they believed to be connected to the drug trade.

Capital punishment is mandatory in Malaysia for various crimes, including kidnapping and drug trafficking.

More than 1,200 people are on death row in Malaysia.