Why Malaysia has abolished the mandatory death penalty for serious crimes

Key points
  • The Malaysian parliament will abolish mandatory death sentences and life sentences.
  • More than 1,300 convicts will have the right to have their sentence reviewed.
  • According to the minister, the death penalty was an ineffective deterrent.
The Malaysian Parliament on Monday passed sweeping legal reforms aimed at abolishing the mandatory death penalty, reducing the number of crimes punishable by the death penalty and abolishing life sentences in prison.
Malaysia has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 2018, when it first vowed to completely abolish the death penalty.

The government, however, faced political pressure from some parties and backtracked on its promise a year later, saying it would retain the death penalty but allow the courts to commute it to other punishments of their choice.

According to the adopted amendments, alternatives to the death penalty include flogging and imprisonment for a term of 30 to 40 years. The new term of imprisonment will replace all previous provisions providing for imprisonment for the natural life of the offender.
Life sentences, defined by Malaysian law as a fixed term of 30 years, will be maintained.
The death penalty will also be abolished as an option for certain serious crimes that do not result in death, such as issuing and dealing in firearms and kidnapping.

Malaysia’s action comes even as some neighbors in Southeast Asia have tightened their use of the death penalty: Singapore executed 11 people for drug-related offenses last year, and military-run Myanmar carried out its first death sentences on four activists in decades opposing the junta.

Death penalty ‘failed’

Malaysian Deputy Justice Minister Ramkarpal Singh said the death penalty is an irreversible sentence and an ineffective deterrent.
“The death penalty has not brought the results it was intended to achieve,” he said as he concluded the parliamentary debate on the measures.
The adopted amendments apply to 34 crimes for which the death penalty is currently provided, including murder and drug trafficking. Eleven of them carry it as a mandatory punishment.

More than 1,300 people facing the death penalty or life imprisonment, including those who have exhausted all other legal appeals, may seek retrial under the new rules.

Dobby Chu, executive coordinator of the Asian Network Against the Death Penalty, said that the adoption of the amendments was a good first step towards total abolition of the death penalty.
“For the most part, we are on the right track for Malaysia – this is reform that has been long overdue,” he said.

“We should not deny the fact that the state kills someone, and whether the state should have such power … The abolition of mandatory punishment is a good time to start thinking about it.”

Human Rights Watch Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson called Monday’s vote “an important step forward for Malaysia” and hopes it will increase pressure on other countries in Southeast Asia to follow suit.
“This is an important breakthrough that will spark some serious conversation in the halls of upcoming ASEAN meetings,” he told AFP, referring to the Southeast Asian 10-nation bloc.
“Malaysia should show regional leadership by encouraging other governments in ASEAN to reconsider their continued use of the death penalty, starting with Singapore, which recently carried out a series of executions in the wake of the coronavirus.”
Cambodia and the Philippines are the only ASEAN members to have completely abolished the death penalty.

With AFP