LETTER | No to total abolition of capital punishment

LETTER | With the abolition of mandatory capital punishment in Malaysia, some were of the view that the death penalty should be abolished entirely.

Personally, I do not agree with the total removal of capital punishment.

The death penalty should be reserved for the “rarest of rare” cases.

I am reminded of a South African movie, Shepherds and Butchers:

“You sit there wringing your hands over the death penalty. But no one ever remembers the victims. Like the guy who was stabbed numerous times.

“No one remembers that poor man running for his life. Or this woman who was burned to death in the boot of her car. No one remembers that poor woman’s suffering.

“Or any of these women in any of these cases who were raped, strangled and beaten, had their heads bashed in, stabbed, drowned in their own blood in the arms of a son.

“No one remembers their suffering, organises a protest, or delivers a paper at an international conference”.

Malaysians would recall the horrifying story of Nurin Jazlin in 2007, an 8-year-old girl who was reported missing for about a month.

Her body was found stuffed in a gym bag, bones crushed, body folded in half into a fetal position. Post-mortem revealed that she was sexually assaulted, with cucumber and brinjal stuffed inside her genitals.

Till today, her murder remains unsolved and the killer is still out there living amongst us.

A murder as such which causes outrage throughout the nation for its heinousness and brutality is an example of the “rarest of rare” case which, to me, deserves capital punishment.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.