Malaysian Parliament Has Passed Bill to Abolish Death Penalty for All Offences After Unanimous Vote

The Malaysian Parliament has made a historic move after yesterday’s unanimous vote to abolish the death penalty for serious crimes.

After 5 years of advocacy from human rights groups and various government MPs, Malaysia is finally on its way to legally reform the state’s capital punishment laws.

The new legislation will be presented to the King and written officially into the country’s law if it is passed by The Dewan Negara (government-controlled senate).

Malaysia’s deputy law minister, Ramkarpal Singh has said that the death penalty is an irreversible sentence that has failed to be a successful form of crime deterrence. 

“We cannot arbitrarily ignore the existence of the inherent right to life of every individual. The death penalty has not brought the results it was intended to bring,” he said in parliament yesterday.

Previously, death sentences were automatically imposed upon conviction for a number of crimes, including homicide, terrorism and drug trafficking, leaving judges with no discretion.

With the new reforms, The Deputy Minister reiterated that Malaysia can still employ the execution penalty at the judge’s discretion even though it is no longer mandatory.

For some crimes, the death sentence is still in place up to the judge’s discretion.

“We must trust the judiciary to make decisions based on their judgment,” said Ramkarpal.

This reform will replace all prior provisions that called for imprisonment for the entirety of the offender’s natural life with whipping and imprisonment for 30 to 40 years as alternatives to the death sentence.

Malaysia’s human rights group, Amnesty International Malaysia’s Executive Director Katrina Jorene Maliamauv has released a statement saying that yesterday’s vote:

“Has been a long-time in the making, and while there is still more to be done, it lays the foundations for further reform that must put human rights and fair trial proceedings front and centre.”

Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson also chimed in saying that “Malaysia should show regional leadership by encouraging other governments in ASEAN to re-think their continued use of the death penalty, starting with Singapore which has recently gone on a post-Covid execution spree.”

Despite a moratorium on executions since 2018, judges have kept convicts on death row.

This new change will now give a chance for over 1,300 inmates to have their sentence reviewed an upholds the country’s new stance on upholding the inherent right to life of every individual.

As Malaysians, we’ve achieved a significant milestone with this vote but what do you think of this newly passed bill? Let your thoughts be known in the comment section!

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