LFL adviser N Surendran hit out at MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong, who said in a statement on Saturday that Pakatan Harapan (PH) was being hasty in axing capital punishment.
“Did Wee or MCA demand a PSC when the Barisan Nasional (BN) government rushed to pass the undemocratic Anti-Fake News Act on the eve of GE14?
“On the contrary, they kept silent and even voted for the act, toeing the line of their Umno bosses. But when PH wishes to abolish the death penalty, in a move consistent with universal human rights and international standards, MCA tries to block it by demanding a PSC,” Surendran said in a statement.
He also slammed Wee for suggesting that the move to abolish the death penalty was to facilitate the extradition of Sirul Azhar Umar, who was convicted of murdering Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006.
He said civil society, the opposition and international bodies had long pushed for the death penalty to be scrapped, and that PH’s move to abolish it was “the culmination of a decades-long movement against the death penalty in Malaysia”.
“It is thus ridiculous and mischievous for Wee to claim that the abolition is being ‘rushed’ to bring convicted killer Sirul back from Australia to testify in the Altantuya case.”
Surendran questioned the need for a PSC on the matter in the first place, saying there was no empirical or statistical evidence that the death penalty reduces serious crime.
“No number of select committees set up by the Dewan Rakyat is going to prove the deterrent effect of the death penalty,” he added.
“And there are simply no other compelling grounds upon which to uphold or maintain the death penalty as a punishment in Malaysia.”
Calling the death sentence “the ultimate denial of human rights”, Surendran urged the government to remain steadfast in abolishing the punishment.
“Do Wee and MCA realise that human lives are at stake here? Some of those on death row may be innocent or wrongly convicted. Some are merely desperate drug mules, and many of them can be rehabilitated.
“Is MCA and BN’s solution just to hang them all?”