The Sun
by Michelle Chun and Dorothy Cheng
by Michelle Chun and Dorothy Cheng
PETALING
JAYA (Oct 31, 2012): The severity of punishment is not as effective a
deterrent to crime as the certainty of punishment being carried out,
said a political affairs expert from the European Union.
EU
delegation to Malaysia political affairs representative Ivo Apostolov
said a person would be more likely to commit a crime as long as he
believed he would not be caught even if the punishment is death.
"But
if one knows he will definitely be caught, he would be less willing to
commit a crime even if the punishment is less severe," Apostolov said at
the Taylor's University Law Awareness Day 2012 today.
He said crime is still on the rise even with the death penalty, and there is no proof it prevents crime effectively.
"In
Malaysia the number of drug traffickers caught at airports keeps
rising, which is why the government is considering a review of the death
penalty for this offence," he said.
He also said the death penalty is contrary to the values of a nation that upholds every person's right to life.
"Before
the concept of justice there was only the vendetta of vengeance, but
what we want to show is that we are a humane society that respects and
values every life.
"If we expect equal punishment for every crime, the cycle would never end as an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Malaysia
is one of 58 countries which still retains the death penalty for
murder, drug trafficking, treason and waging war against the King. More
than 900 people are presently on death row.
Many Malaysians reportedly favour the death penalty as an appropriate way of deterring crime and punishing offenders.
Meanwhile,
the EU, Malaysian Bar Council and the National Human Rights Commission
have organised a pleadings competition among universities to raise
awareness on the death sentence as mandatory punishment in Malaysia.
1 comment:
It does send a confusing message when one day it is announced that judges will no longer have the discretion to impose lenient sentences in the case of rape and then next day talk about abolishing the death sentence.
It is equally inconsistent to suggest the plight of Malaysian drug mules on death row in other countries while the same fellows would also cop a mandatory death sentence had they been caught in Malaysia.
A more logical approach would be to link the abolition of the death sentence for all crimes with achieving an acceptable benchmark of crime prevention. When the annual crime rate for each offence falls below a ratio per head of population in a typical developed nation where the death penalty has been abolished then we can also abolish the death penalty in Malaysia. Amnesty International can't have any valid argument with that unless they really do value the life of a criminal more than that of their victims.
But at the same time, the death penalty will only be an effective deterrent against crime if hangings are reported in all their gruesome detail as they are in the US. We cannot afford to have the safety of the Malaysian public held to ransom to appease the protest from Amnesty International.
Remember that the road to hell is paved by people meaning well.
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