Malaysia must catch up with Singapore, to recognise that the mandatory death sentence for drug smuggling is cruel, degrading and inhumane, a parliamentarian said today.

Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong lauded the city-state court's rare decision yesterday to spare the life of Sabahan Yong Vui Kong under an amendment passed last November, wondering when Malaysia can see the same for some 964 offenders now on death row.

NONE"I call upon the Malaysian government to emulate Singapore and amend our laws to allow discretionary sentencing in cases of mandatory death sentences with a long term view to abolishing the death penalty," DAP's Liew (right) said in a statement.

The 25-year old Yong, who formerly acted as a mule to carry drugs from Malaysia to Singapore, was sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane. Yong will now be eligible to apply for parole in 2027, after serving 20 years.

Before this, Singapore had once been cited by UN studies as the country with the second-highest per capita death penalty in the world because of its relatively small population.

Liew, who is also DAP's national political education director, noted that Malaysia remains one of the 58 countries in the world that still condoned capital punishment.

From the parliamentary replies received, Liew noted that as of 10 June, 2013, there were 964 offenders sentenced to death. This was a rise ofrom the 696 death row prisoners as of 22, February 2011.

"Between 1960 and February 2011, Malaysia has executed 441 persons," he added.

He urged the government to carry forward the suggestion already mooted in October last year by then de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, now tourism and culture minister, who had told the attorney-general to consider jail instead of death penalty for such offences.

Amnesty urges continued reforms

Meanwhile, despite describing the reduction of Yong's sentence as a “landmark ruling” Amnesty International stated caning should not have been imposed.

NONE“Yong should never have had to suffer through six years on death row for a non-lethal offence which does not warrant a death sentence under international law.

“He must also be spared the 15 cane strokes, which is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” its East Asia Research director Roseann Rife said in a statement today.

She noted, however, that only four people had their death sentences commuted in 2013 so far but Yong is the first drug-related case.

It is now up to the Singapore authorities, Rife added, to build on yesterday’s ruling and start a genuine debate on the death penalty, with the view to its eventual abolition.