COMMENT | Abolition of mandatory death penalty: Govt not being soft on crime

COMMENT | Yesterday, I watched in gratitude and awe as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said and her deputy Ramkarpal Singh tabled the first reading of the amendments to abolish the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia.

I have been lobbying and campaigning for 10 years to see Malaysia free from the death penalty and this is certainly having one foot in the door.

The death penalty in Malaysia is a colonial law and our colonial masters have long abolished it in the United Kingdom.

In Malaysia, there are 33 various offences that carry the death penalty, of which 11 are mandatory - two from the Firearms Act and nine from the Penal Code, which means the hands of the judges and courts are tied and no other punishment is meted out.

As of yesterday, there are...