From Martin Vengadesan

It’s another harrowing week for the families of Malaysians on death row in Singapore. News has broken that K Datchinamurthy is scheduled to be executed on Sept 25 at Changi prison.

He has spent 15 years on death row, arrested as a young man for agreeing to transport a package, only to later discover it contained heroin.

This weekend, I will be moderating the launch of a book by another Malaysian on Singapore’s death row, P Pannir Selvam. Convicted in 2017 for acting as a heroin courier, his book is titled “Death Row Literature: A Collection of Poems”.

Even before Datchinamurthy’s execution date was announced, 12 government MPs urged home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail to contact Singapore to intervene in Pannir’s case.

It is very sobering, but when I recall the execution of another Malaysian, KD Nagaenthran, on April 27, 2022, I can’t help but be pessimistic about the fate of our countrymen. This is especially true when Nagaenthran was executed despite being intellectually disabled and despite global appeals for clemency.

I have been a death penalty abolitionist since my teens, and I believe Malaysia’s position in seeking clemency for Datchinamurthy and Pannir would be stronger if the death penalty were fully abolished at home.

The death penalty is still on the books, even though the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 came into effect, with several laws amended to remove the mandatory death penalty.

Thus, although we are no longer carrying out executions, people are still being handed the death penalty because it is still currently retained for 27 offences in Malaysia.

This is even though the government imposed a moratorium on all executions in October 2018, while the last executions were carried out on May 24, 2017, more than eight years ago.

I have always held that the state must act rationally, not emotionally. Its duty is not to take lives, but to preserve them.

Furthermore, a majority of the 900-plus people still on death row are there for drug-related crimes, and they are often drug mules and addicts, not the kingpins.

Even worse, we have a justice system that has been rotten in the past and is not entirely spotless in the present.

You can’t tell me that evidence-gathering in the past has not been compromised through planted evidence and confessions extorted through violence. With law enforcement being culpable.

The US even has the Innocence Project, which works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. Through DNA testing, it overturned numerous wrongful convictions.

Just think if it could be applied retroactively in Malaysia. I wonder how many innocent people we sent to the gallows?

I know that it’s very difficult to think of an appropriate punitive sentence when it comes to cases in which a victim is bullied or tortured to death.

I have never forgotten the child abuse fatality of Baby Bala in 1991, nor the appalling gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in Delhi in 2012.

Honestly, when I read about those cases, I wanted the criminal brought to justice and to suffer heinously like they made their victims suffer.

At the same time, I still believe that an eye for an eye would make the whole world blind. A progressive state cannot be responsible for taking lives.

I suppose life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or pardon is the correct sentence for such barbaric acts. It doesn’t seem enough, and yet it’s the best option I can think of.

What I am certain of is that Malaysia should take the plunge and fully abolish the death penalty instead of tiptoeing around, making a firm decision.

Martin Vengadesan is a former news editor who currently serves as a strategic communications consultant to the communications ministry.