LETTER | Today marks the 23rd World Day Against the Death Penalty, an initiative to reflect on the death penalty and the human rights issues associated with it. It also offers us an unmissable opportunity to renew our commitments to its abolition.
Recent events have lent new urgency to reform. On Oct 8, Malaysian Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was executed in Singapore. Two weeks earlier, on Sept 25, another Malaysian, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, was executed.
Both were for drug trafficking offences. Their deaths underscore the urgent need for change.
The death penalty raises profound human rights concerns across our region – from its use for drug-related offences that do not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” under international law, to mandatory death sentences, unfair trials, restricted access to legal counsel from arrest, and the lack of mental health assessments.
These are not merely legal issues; they are matters of justice, dignity, and humanity.
Figures shared in Parliament indicate that Singapore is not the only country where Malaysians have been sentenced to death in Asean and in China.
As of October 2024, 74 Malaysians have been sentenced to death abroad, namely in Brunei, China, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, mostly for drug smuggling offences.
On the positive side, I am encouraged by the progress unfolding across our region.
Asean member states and Timor-Leste are at different stages in their journey towards abolition. Timor-Leste and the Philippines have abolished the penalty for all crimes, and, at the opposite end, reportedly, three countries have carried out executions in the past five years – Myanmar, Singapore, and Vietnam.
On June 25, Vietnam’s National Assembly voted to abolish the death penalty for eight offences, including illegal drug transportation. This reform is likely to significantly reduce the use of capital punishment in the country.
Other countries have observed a hiatus in executions, with Brunei Darussalam holding the longest execution-free period (since 1957).
Recent developments show that when political will aligns with principle, real progress is possible. Malaysia continues to demonstrate how bold legislative reform can translate into real change.
Following the landmark 2023 repeal of the mandatory death penalty and the introduction of resentencing, over 1,000 death sentences were reduced. On July 21, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said announced in Parliament that the moratorium on executions established in 2018 remains in place.
We have not carried out an execution since May 2017. We are now on track to complete in 2027, 10 years without executions, which will reclassify Malaysia as an abolitionist in practice country.
While we continue to review the cases of individuals on death row whose convictions and sentences have been upheld, as well as the broader policy on the death penalty, the government maintains the current moratorium on executions.
I join others in calling on all countries that retain capital punishment to halt executions now and move decisively toward meaningful reform. In particular, I call for an immediate Asean-wide moratorium for concrete steps toward abolition.
When there is political will, executions can – and do – end. Every move toward abolition matters. No step is too small.
The author is the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) chair and Malaysian representative to AICHR.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
