MARUAH letter on recent changes to electoral procedures

14 June 2024

Maruah has submitted the following feedback to Elections Department of Singapore (“ELD”) in view of the General Election due by next year, and ELD’s announcement that it had made some changes to electoral procedures as a result of experience gained in the 2023 Presidential Election:

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To: Elections Department, Prime Minister’s Office

Maruah is gratified that you are responding to public feedback and providing more space on ballot papers for voters to indicate their choice. During last year’s Presidential Election, ELD also introduced two new methods of voting – postal ballots and special polling stations at nursing homes. More voters were able to have their voices heard thanks to these new procedures, but there is room for improvement in these procedures.

In the case of postal balloting, over 40% of postal ballots received were rejected, mostly due to illegible or missing postmarks, or late delivery. These were not the fault of the voters, and I urge ELD to adopt more reliable ways of validating the dates of dispatch instead of relying solely on the vagaries of foreign postal systems. The forms and instructions for voting should also be improved to reduce the chance of inadvertent errors such as voters signing their forms at the wrong place or posting multiple ballots in the same envelope.

In the case of nursing homes, residents were pre-selected for participation based on the homes’ assessments of their ability to vote. Unfortunately, from my own observations as a polling agent, a large proportion of the selected residents did not appear to have the mental capacity to vote or to clearly indicate their choice. This was alluded to by Minister Chan Chun Sing in a written reply to a Parliamentary Question on 4 October 2023, where he said “election officials did face challenges including managing voters who may lack the mental capacity to vote”. To prevent any disputes in future over the validity of votes at nursing homes, ELD should tighten and standardise the criteria used to assess the mental capacity of residents before they vote. ELD should also evaluate the usefulness of mobile polling stations at nursing homes.

Maruah would like to thank ELD, and the thousands of elections officials and public servants involved in elections, for their continual efforts to improve the voting experience and making it easier for Singaporeans to exercise their right and duty of voting.

MARUAH Singapore

June 2024

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[Joint statement] Laos: 11 years of government inaction on Sombath Somphone’s enforced disappearance

8 December 2023

On the 11-year anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone, we, the undersigned civil society organizations and individuals, strongly condemn the Lao government’s continued failure to provide necessary information as to his fate and whereabouts and reiterate our calls to the authorities to deliver truth, justice and reparations to his family.

International concerns over Sombath’s case, expressed by international civil society, United Nations (UN) human rights experts, and UN member states on last year’s anniversary of Sombath’s enforced disappearance, have been ignored by the Lao government.

On 25 September 2023, in a submission to the UN Human Rights Committee as part of its follow-up review of Laos under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Lao government repeated previous misleading statements and miserably failed to provide any additional information on the steps it said it had taken to find Sombath. The government claimed it “never stopped trying to find the truth” about Sombath’s fate “in order to bring the offender(s) to justice.” In reality, the Lao authorities have continued to disregard Sombath’s wife, Shui Meng Ng, and have not provided her with any updates on her husband’s case since 2017. The government then made the extraordinary assertion that its Task Force’s investigation had been “carried out on the basis of transparency, impartiality and accountability, including the use of modern investigative techniques consistent with international standards by the capable inquiry officials.” It concluded that the case of Sombath needed “more time for investigation” and added that the Task Force was “still active in the investigation” and had “not yet closed the case.”

These government statements are unequivocally false in suggesting any degree of transparency. Existing evidence is clear that the Lao government has been engaged in a continuous cover-up of the facts of Sombath’s case since he was forcibly disappeared in 2012, including providing misleading information about its actions to his family, the Lao public, and the international community, as stated above.

We deplore the unmistakable pattern of inaction, negligence, and obfuscation that various Lao authorities have repeatedly engaged in for more than a decade and we continue to resolutely stand in solidarity with Sombath’s family and all other victims of enforced disappearances in Laos.

We reiterate our calls on the Lao authorities to take real and effective measures to establish the fate or whereabouts of Sombath and all other victims of enforced disappearances in the country, identify the perpetrators of such serious crimes, and provide victims with an effective remedy and full reparations. We also urge the government to immediately ratify without reservations the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which it signed in 2008, and to fully implement it into national law, policies and practices.

As upcoming chair for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Laos will be placed in a strategic position to lead the regional efforts to strengthen, promote, and protect human rights. However, its continued failure to act on Sombath’s enforced disappearance sends a message of inadequacy to head the regional bloc and to fulfill ASEAN’s purpose under Article 1(7) of the ASEAN Charter, which is to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance, and the rule of law and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

We will continue to seek justice and accountability for Sombath. Until the truth is found and justice is delivered to his family, we will not stop demanding answers from the Lao government to the same question we have been asking for the past 11 years: “Where is Sombath?”

Background

Sombath Somphone, a pioneer in community-based development and youth empowerment, was last seen at a police checkpoint on a busy street of Vientiane on the evening of 15 December 2012. Footage from a traffic CCTV camera showed that police stopped Sombath’s vehicle at the checkpoint and that, within minutes, unknown individuals forced him into another vehicle and drove him away in the presence of police officers. CCTV footage also showed an unknown individual arriving and driving Sombath’s vehicle away from the city center. In December 2015, Sombath’s family obtained new CCTV footage from the same area and made it public. The video shows Sombath’s car being driven back towards the city by an unknown individual.

For further information, please visit: https://www.sombath.org/en/

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Winners of Essay Contest for Young Singaporeans on Their Vision For Singapore Beyond Lee Kuan Yew

8 September 2023

Maruah is pleased to announce the winners of our essay contest for young Singaporeans on their vision for a Singapore beyond Lee Kuan Yew. The contest was organised to encourage young Singaporeans to evaluate Mr Lee’s legacy and consider how they would retain or modify his legacy for Singapore.

Eight years after Mr Lee’s death, the imprint of Lee Kuan Yew can still be clearly seen in public discourse on many issues. For example, the controversy over the renting of colonial bungalows to Government ministers, the arrest of a Government minister on suspicion of corruption, and even the resignations of People’s Action Party (PAP) and opposition Members of Parliament over extra-marital affairs are legacies of Mr Lee’s determination that politicians in Singapore be whiter-than-white. The Elected Presidency was also a creation of LKY, and just by voting in the recent Presidential Election, all Singaporeans are participating in a system that Mr Lee established.

Almost a decade after his death, Mr Lee’s legacy remains ubiquitious in Singapore but the World does not stay still, and as he himself would have recognised, Singaporeans, especially young Singaporeans have to think of how they would retain or modify LKY’s legacy to meet their needs and aspirations in a rapidly-changing environment. This was the question posed to participants in the contest and the judging panel selected four winners, in no particular order – Lam Yu Han, Luke Lee, Desiree Leong and Wesley Ng. 

Lam Yu Han, a 23-year-old full-time National Serviceman who volunteers in the community and has an interest in social issues and politics. Lam is grateful for the economic prosperity and security that Mr Lee’s leadership brought to Singapore, but is also perturbed by the Out-of-Bounds (OB) markers the Government places on media and even on individuals who choose self-censorship as the path of least resistance. In his view, Mr Lee will only be able to rest peacefully in his grave when Singapore has both a government that has the competence and legitmacy to take on the challenges facing the nation, and a society that can discuss ideas freely and intelligently.

Luke Lee, 22, was also in National Service when he entered the essay contest as a means of educating himself to examine issues wholistically and objectively. Growing up, Luke had only been taught the positive aspects of Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), and only later in life became aware of more questionable aspects such as LKY’s use of the Internal Security Act against political opponents, and eugenic policies including the Graduate Mothers’ Scheme. Luke’s wish is that people can express divergent opinions without fear, and wrote the essay to meet his own aspiration and as an encouragement to others.

Desiree Leong has been working with Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) for seven years where she has seen first-hand that migrant worker issues are often at the coalface of broader issues facing society. Ms Leong feels strongly that this country is her home and where she wants to make a difference. She believes that for Singapore to move forward together as an inclusive society, we will have to come to terms with the past so as to truly make it our past.

Wesley Ng is an undergraduate in Poltical Science & South East Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS) with an interest in the politics of South East Asia. Mr Ng hopes that Singapore will continue and cherish the parts of LKY’s legacy that reinforce Singaporeans’ belief that their nation can continue to remain united regardless of race, language or religion, and to succeed against the odds. At the same time, he argues that Singapore today calls for a different style of governance – One that recognizes that while the post-LKY leaders need strong public trust to succeed, the leaders also need to trust that the citizenry are aware of what is best for Singapore and of what Singapore needs to succeed.

These four essays are only a small sample of the views that young Singaporeans have on LKY’s legacy and of the Singapore that they hope to see in the future.  Maruah hopes all Singaporeans will continue to engage in meaningful discussions of the home that they wish to live in and to build in the future.

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[Repost] The Big Read: Transporting migrant workers on lorries — why can’t we stop the unsafe practice after so long?

20 August 2023

https://www.todayonline.com/big-read/big-read-transporting-migrant-workers-lorries-why-cant-we-stop-unsafe-practice-after-so-long-2235726

SINGAPORE — Sometime in 2021, migrant worker Miah Mohammad Afzal saw a traffic accident before his very eyes — a motorcycle crashing into a stationary lorry that was picking up a group of his colleagues.

It happened by the roadside where he was waiting with his other colleagues to be picked up by another lorry, which arrived minutes after that accident.

“At that time I was thinking, if this accident happened two minutes later, then I’d also be on the lorry, and I also would have been injured,” he told TODAY, adding that while he felt grateful for narrowly escaping harm, he felt “very sad” for his fellow workers.

Little did he expect that a similar misfortune would befall him just months later, when a car crashed into the lorry that was ferrying him and a colleague as they sat in its rear deck.

While the other man managed to hold on to the side of the vehicle, Mr Afzal, then 28, was flung a few metres out of the lorry.

The accident, which struck Mr Afzal at the prime of his life, resulted in over 250 days of hospitalisation leave and left him with mild cognitive disability and retrograde amnesia, and a permanent injury to his hip and pelvis.

With his mother unwell and the injury claim process dragging out, Mr Afzal returned to his hometown in Bangladesh, where he now tries his best to get by with helping out at his family farm.

“I cannot do hard work like before… Right now, I feel like I’m 40 or 50 years old,” he said, adding that people around him could also notice the decline in his health and ability to do physical work.

Mr Afzal is just one among thousands of workers who have been injured, maimed or killed in accidents involving lorries the past 10 years or so, while the practice of ferrying workers on the rear decks of such vehicles have been endlessly debated on for at least over a decade with nary a progress.

A few other migrant workers who spoke to TODAY recently — mostly under anonymity due to fear of reprisals — lamented how their pleas to employers were met with indifference at best or on many occasions, threats of deportation.

“I cannot open (my) mouth…boss will say: ‘This one, I will send back already’,” said one worker from India who worked as a lorry driver in the construction industry for five years, before recently moving to a different industry. He added that riding on the back of lorries “is not just dangerous, it’s very, very dangerous”.

The long-running debate on the issue of safer transportation for foreign workers was reignited recently, following two such accidents and a parliamentary adjournment motion filed by Member of Parliament (MP) Louis Ng in July, asking for a timeline towards legislating a ban on ferrying workers at the back of lorries, and some interim measures in the meantime.

Two petitions were also raised by members of the public and non-government organisations (NGOs) in July, followed by a joint response on Aug 1 by 25 business and trade associations.

While reiterating the business fraternity’s commitment to workers’ safety, the statement by the business groups cautioned against any form of immediate legislation, warning people to brace themselves for traffic jams, higher costs and “a change in social compact” if they insist on hastily changing the way workers are transported.

The statement inevitably drew flak from members of the public, with some accusing businesses of prioritising profits over human lives, trying to push the bill (and blame) on society, and dragging their feet given that the debate has been going on for so long. 

Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh also reacted negatively to the statement, saying that the business groups “are resorting to scare tactics to support their cause”.

“We should not be misled by their campaign,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

On the Government’s part, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and government partner agencies issued a joint statement on Aug 2, reaffirming their commitment to workers’ safety while highlighting that a big push that threaten the ability of businesses to stay open may put employees’ jobs at risk, besides other “knock-on effects” on society like more expensive or delayed infrastructure projects. 

“We want to safeguard both safety and livelihoods of our workers, and have worked closely with stakeholders on a suite of additional safety measures,” the joint statement said, highlighting incremental steps taken over the years.

Amid the renewed debate, a few local companies shared with TODAY the extent of their cost concerns, and other operational challenges they had experienced in trying to switch to safer transport modes.

At the same time, most parties lobbying for better treatment of workers —  including NGOs focusing on the welfare of migrant workers  — said they empathised with the challenges faced by businesses.

Ms Jewel Yi, co-lead of ground-up movement Covid-19 Migrant Support Coalition, acknowledged how difficult it is to be an employer in Singapore and that cost issues would “affect the rice bowls of people on the ground”.

While “we definitely do not and should not demonise” employers in this debate, she stressed that the main point that safe transport proponents are making is “whether the cost concerns of employers should outweigh the lives and limbs of workers”.

While the issue is pressing, and perhaps even overdue, the advocates are not demanding an instant overhaul of the long-running practice.

Please visit Todayonline.com to access the rest of the article – https://www.todayonline.com/big-read/big-read-transporting-migrant-workers-lorries-why-cant-we-stop-unsafe-practice-after-so-long-2235726

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[Joint statement] End Lorry Rides, Save Workers’ Lives – Ban them Immediately.

25 July 2023

On the early morning of 18 July 2023, three lorries piled up in an accident on Kranji Expressway. 26 migrant workers who had been riding in them were taken to three different hospitals after sustaining injuries. The very next day, a car collided with a lorry on the KPE. 11 people were taken to the hospital, including 10 migrant workers from the lorry.    

Meanwhile, a mere two weeks ago in Parliament, the Singapore government chose again to reject an adjournment motion by MP Louis Ng to ban the ferrying of workers on lorries. Senior Minister of Transport Amy Khor said the government agreed that it “would be ideal” not to transport workers in lorries, but then went on to repeat the same tired excuses, like how there were “not enough drivers with the necessary license” and “not enough private buses”, as if this were not issues that could have been resolved years ago.

The feeble steps that the government has taken so far – which they claim increases safety on lorries – are grossly inadequate, and a mere distraction from what is plainly the right thing to do – ban ferrying workers on goods lorries. The simple fact remains that good lorries were never designed for human transport – they are not safety tested for human transport, and they violate the dignity of workers, who are exposed to heat stress and heavy rains on the road, always anxious if they will reach their destination safely.

The government’s inaction is further inexcusable given the wide range of transport alternatives that so many other countries rely on to transport workers in similar industries, including high tech-bus scheduling and shuttle services that allow companies to share buses, mini-buses, goods-cum-passenger vehicles, and more.

In 2020, the minimum amount of foreign worker levy the government collected in the industries that ferry workers in lorries would have been at least 1.1. billion dollars. The government can use some of this levy money to support smaller companies that may face start-up challenges with transitioning away from lorries and towards safer transport options.

But when, instead of confronting the issue with the gravity and urgency it requires, the government engages in handwringing and theatrics about “trade-offs” and the “acute pain” to industry that would be caused by banning lorries, we have no choice but to conclude that they simply do not care about workers’ lives, or the real, acute pain that injured workers and grieving families thousands of miles away experience every year because of our unconscionable choices.

Over the years, more and more voices have called for an end to transporting workers in lorries, including rights groups, health and safety experts, MPs, and migrant workers themselves. In a Straits Times article in 2021, NTUC assistant secretary general Melvin Yong  stated that “there is a perfectly viable alternative to transport our migrant workers – in buses, equipped with seat belts”. A people’s petition in 2020 to ban lorries garnered over 40,000 signatories in a single week. It is abundantly clear what the people want – it weighs heavily on ordinary Singaporeans’ conscience that we put workers at risk every day, while we travel safely in buses, taxis, cars and the MRT. Does it not weigh on the government’s?

Between 2011 and 2020 alone, 58 workers on-board lorries died in road traffic accidents, and 4765 were injured.     

How many more workers will be injured while the government continues to have “difficult conversations”? How many more years must we mourn these completely preventable deaths? What will it take before the dignity and the basic right to safe transportation is restored to our migrant brothers?   

If our Ministers would not put their children in the backs of lorries, then they have no business putting other people’s children – our migrant brothers – in the backs of lorries.

Migrant workers’ lives matter. And they certainly matter more than their bosses’ profits.

We, the undersigned, call on the government to:

a) immediately ban the ferrying of migrant workers on lorries;

b) set up an MOT initiative to support companies that may face challenges with transitioning towards safer modes of transport

#HumansNotCargo

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MARUAH Essay Contest for Young Singaporeans on their vision for a Singapore beyond Lee Kuan Yew

30 April 2023

As the Singapore government prepares to observe the 100th anniversary of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s birth, Maruah seeks to encourage young Singaporeans to reflect on Mr Lee’s contributions to Singapore and to articulate a vision for Singapore beyond Lee Kuan Yew.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew has loomed larger than anyone else over the nation and people of Singapore ever since the early 1950s when he emerged as a lawyer for trades unions and anti-colonial activists. Over the course of his 31-year tenure as Prime Minister and eventual transition into the role of Minister Mentor and elder statesman, Mr Lee’s policies and personality have shaped Singapore. Mr Lee’s mark can still be seen in our economic development, physical transformation, social policy and authoritarian style of governance today.

Mr Lee stepped down as Prime Minister in 1990 and a generation of Singaporeans has grown up in the 33 years since then. This generation of Singaporeans has benefited from Mr Lee’s legacy and will shape the future of Singapore in the years to come. As the 100th anniversary of Mr Lee’s birth approaches, Maruah would like to encourage young Singaporeans to evaluate Mr Lee’s legacy and consider how they would retain or modify his legacy for Singapore in the future.

Maruah invites Singaporeans born in or after 1990 to submit an essay of up to 2,000 words on the topic:

“What does Mr Lee Kuan Yew mean to you and what is your vision for a post-Lee Kuan Yew Singapore?”

A total of six $1,000 prizes will be awarded, with three $1,000 prizes reserved for contributors who have never enrolled in a local or overseas university. All participants must be Singapore citizens born in 1990 or later.

The essays will be judged based on factors including relevance to the topic, critical thinking, originality of ideas and depth of knowledge. The decision of the judging panel will be final.

All submissions must be submitted online at this link and received by 15 July 2023 11.59pm.

Winning essays will be published on Maruah’s website and social media. 

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[Repost] Business and Human Rights in Southeast Asia: A Practitioner’s GuideKit

9 October 2022

31 August 2022

By Moritz Kleine-Brockhoff | The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Southeast and East Asia

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) for Freedom Southeast and East Asia and AmerBON, Advocates have published a GuideKit for Small and Medium Enterprises on Human Rights Compliance regarding the Environment and Labour. The book, written by six human rights experts, contains eight chapters that deals with issues ranging from due diligence and internal assessment to environmental risks and fair recruitment. As the publication is a GuideKit, a self-assessment template, a validation template, and a scoring template are included. Finally, the book describes a process to handle worker’s grievances as well as steps to address issues and concerns raised by external parties.

Edmund Bon Tai Soon and his staff at AmerBON initiated the book. Edmund is a human rights lawyer in Kuala Lumpur, who previously served as Malaysia’s representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). He also chairs the Malaysia National Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, which is part of the Regional Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, which has been a partner of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for decades.

“The GuideKit is a first-of-its-kind regional guide containing essential and practical tools that SMEs can use to meet their Business and Human Rights obligations under the UN Guiding Principles. It simplifies applicable concepts and standards, contains key tools, and provides solutions SMEs can adopt”, writes Dr. Mohd Munir Bin Abdul Majid, the Chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN BAC). Le Thi Nam Huong, Head of the Human Rights Division at the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) calls the book “a valuable framework to help enterprises manage human rights risks and address adverse human rights impacts in their business activities. This GuideKit is also an essential reference resource for other stakeholders such as non-governmental organisations, labour associations, and environmental groups who work alongside businesses to tackle human rights issues and stand up for fundamental rights policies”.

Thank you to Edmund Bon, his staff, and all writers and contributors for making this book possible. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is honoured to be associated with it.

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MARUAH’s statement on the Singapore Government’s intention to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code

21 August 2022

We welcome Singapore’s repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code as announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally 2022.

We appreciate that the Singapore Government has recognised that societal attitudes towards gay people have changed over time.

Section 377A came into force in 1938 after being adapted from a 19th century Indian penal code. This was aimed at targeting rampant male prostitution during the British colonial rule which was many years ago. India repealed that law in 2018. It is clear that the environment has changed since the 1930s and the legislation must change to keep up with the times.

Section 377A has been seen as a symbol of discrimination and stigma against LGBT people here in Singapore. Such discrimination undermines the human rights principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 1 of the UDHR opens with ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.’

While Singapore has taken the first step towards protecting the human rights of LGBT people by repealing Section 377A, this is just the start of a long journey towards strengthening human rights protection for LGBT. We hope that the Singapore Government will go from strength to strength in this respect from hereon.

This is a step in Making Equality Meaningful.

Issued by MARUAH Singapore

21 August 2022

About MARUAH Singapore

We are a Singapore human rights NGO.

MARUAH means Dignity in Malay, Singapore’s national language. Human rights are all about maintaining, restoring and reclaiming one’s dignity at the individual, regional and international level.

We seek to:

  • promote and raise awareness, knowledge and understanding of human rights and human rights and related issues at the national, regional and international levels, in Singapore, ASEAN and elsewhere
  • provide a civil society perspective on human rights and related issues at the national, regional, and international levels
  • advocate for and work towards the respect for and upholding of human rights in accordance with international and other norms
  • foster national, regional, and international co-ordination and development of all activities in relation to human rights and related issues facilitate the education, participation and
  • engagement of persons, groups and organisations in Singapore with respect to human rights and related issues.

MARUAH is also the Singapore focal point for the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism. The Working Group has national representatives from all of the founding Member States of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

The Working Group is an NGO officially recognised in the ASEAN Charter as a stakeholder in ASEAN.

maruahsg@gmail.com

www.maruah.org

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[CNN] Malaysia to abolish mandatory death penalty in move welcomed by rights campaigners

12 June 2022

By Heather Chen, CNN

Updated 0716 GMT (1516 HKT) June 10, 2022 – https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/10/asia/malaysia-death-penalty-abolish-human-rights-intl-hnk/index.html

(CNN) Malaysia will abolish the mandatory death penalty, the government said Friday, in a move cautiously welcomed by rights groups as a rare progressive step on the issue for the region.

In a statement, Malaysian law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said mandatory death sentences for serious crimes would be replaced by “alternative punishments” at the discretion of the courts.

“This shows the government’s emphasis on ensuring that the rights of all parties are protected and guaranteed, reflecting the transparency of the country’s leadership in improving the criminal justice system,” he said.

Relevant laws will be amended, the statement said, adding that further research would be carried out on alternative sentences for a number of crimes that carry the death penalty, including drug offenses.

Like many of its neighbors in Southeast Asia, Malaysia has notoriously tough drug laws, including capital punishment for traffickers.

The country declared a moratorium on executions in 2018 but laws imposing the death penalty remained and courts were required to impose the mandatory death sentence on convicted drug traffickers. Terrorist acts, murder, and rape resulting in death also still warranted a mandatory death penalty.

Friday’s decision comes three years after human rights campaigners had criticized the government for making a U-turn on an earlier pledge to abolish capital punishment entirely.

Cautious welcome

The move Friday was welcomed by rights groups who said it was an “important step forward” for the country and wider region.

“Malaysia’s public pronouncement that it will do away with the mandatory death penalty is an important step forward — especially when one considers how trends on capital punishment are headed in precisely the opposite direction in neighboring countries like Singapore, Myanmar, and Vietnam,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

No executions were carried out in Malaysia throughout 2021, according to a recent Amnesty International report about global executions.

“As of 12 October [2021], 1,359 people were under sentence of death, including 850 with their death sentences being final and appealing for pardon and 925 convicted of drug-related offences,” the report said. Out of the 1,359 sentenced to death, 526 were foreigners, it noted.

However, executions have been on the rise in other parts of Southeast Asia like Myanmar, Vietnam and Singapore, which recently executed an intellectually disabled prisoner from Malaysia despite global condemnation.

This week, Myanmar announced scheduled executions for two men accused of “being involved in terrorist acts” in what would mark the first judicial executions in the country in decades since the military coup.

Although he welcomed Malaysia’s move as a sign of progress, Human Rights Watch’s Robertson said the government needed to follow through on its statement with action.

“We need to see Malaysia pass the actual legislative amendments to put this pledge into effect because we have been down this road before, with successive Malaysian governments promising much on human rights but ultimately delivering very little,” he said.

“The Malaysian government … knows the international community will take this as a sign of the country progressing forward but hopefully, they really mean it this time and move quickly to do away with the mandatory death penalty once and for all.”

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[Malay Mail] Malaysia’s abolishment of death penalty not done deal yet until Parliament passes law, Human Rights Watch rep says

12 June 2022

By John Bunyan

Friday, 10 Jun 2022 4:35 PM MYT – https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/06/10/malaysias-abolishment-of-death-penalty-not-done-deal-yet-until-parliament-passes-law-human-rights-watch-says/11669

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — A Human Rights Watch (HRW) representative Phil Robertson has insisted today that any abolishment of the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia needs to be accompanied by a legislative amendment in the Parliament before the pledge can be put into effect.

The deputy director of the human rights watchdog’s Asia division said Malaysians must instead to take a wait-and-see approach as Putrajaya has historically only delivered little of its promises despite promising so much on human rights.

“Malaysia’s public pronouncement that it will do away with the mandatory death penalty is an important step forward, especially when one considers how trends on capital punishment are headed in precisely the opposite direction in neighbouring countries like Singapore, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

“But before everyone starts cheering, we need to see Malaysia pass the actual legislative amendments to put this pledge into effect because we have been down this road before, with successive Malaysian governments promising much on human rights but ultimately delivering very little,” he said in a statement.

Earlier, Malaysia’s de facto law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar announced that the government has agreed to abolish the mandatory death penalty and substitute sentences at the discretion of the court.

Wan Junaidi also confirmed that the Cabinet has agreed that further scrutiny and study be carried out on the proposed substitute sentence for 11 offences carrying the mandatory death penalty, one offence under section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 [Act 234] 2 and 22 other offences which carry the death penalty but at the discretion of the court.

This further study will be carried out in collaboration with the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) Legal Affairs Division, the Prime Minister’s Department and other interested ministries and departments.

Robertson described the latest announcement on the death penalty by the Malaysian government as merely to show the international community that the country is progressing forward.

“The Malaysian government loves to float trial balloons about human rights initiatives because it knows the international community has a short attention span and will take this as a sign of Malaysia progressing forward.

“But the reality is often more complicated, so we’ve learned to be wary. Hopefully, Malaysia will do the right thing by immediately implementing this pledge to do away with the mandatory death penalty,” he said.

Malaysia has had a moratorium on all executions since 2018 while awaiting recommendations from the committee.

In August 2019, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration formed the Special Committee to Review Alternative Punishments to the Mandatory Death Penalty to examine alternatives to the mandatory death sentence.

However, the PH government collapsed in February 2020 before the Bill for the abolition of the death penalty could be tabled in the March meeting of Parliament that year.

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