Minister wants death penalty abolished despite family tragedy

PETALING JAYA: De facto law minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong demonstrated that he remains a strong supporter of the abolition of the death penalty despite experiencing a heart-wrenching family loss in the hands of a murderer about 40 years ago.

He said his cousin’s murderer has yet to be brought to justice but he has managed to move on years after learning that his cousin had been murdered when they were both 17.

Liew, who is Batu Sapi MP, was studying in Britain when he lost his cousin.

“His mutilated body was found in a river, and I had the same feeling any victim’s family would have. Anger, sadness, emptiness and numbness.

“I demanded answers but there were none. Finding forgiveness plays a big part (in closure) but it isn’t easy to say to the victims. It is a journey we would have to take,” he said at the Death Penalty Conference organised by The Malaysian Coali­tion Against the Death Penalty at Monash University in Bandar Sunway.

He also said the government had met with families of victims and offenders on death row in its process to gather views and perspective from various stakeholders and revealed that they were surprised to find out that death row inmates are not immediately executed.

Instead, they would have to go through several court processes before they are finally executed and are held in a cell measuring 100sq ft (about 9.29sq m) in a high security prison pending their sentence.

“When they learned this, some families said that keeping the inmate in prison is a better alternative as executing the convict would be too easy,” he said.

Liew also said that the paper for the abolition of the death penalty was ready to be tabled at the next Parliament meeting in March.

Abolishing the death penalty was one of the commitments made in the Pakatan Harapan manifesto in the 14th general election.

Separately, Liew said the government could amend existing laws or introduce new ones to better protect the monarchy after action was taken on a few individuals who left insulting remarks about the Yang di-Pertuan Agong following his resignation on Sunday.