Can Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the Madani Government save Malaysians from being executed in Singapore?
Can Anwar Ibrahim and Malaysia, the current leader of ASEAN manage to stop the execution in Singapore, a ASEAN member State?
Singapore has granted clemency to Tristan Tan Yi Rui, an inmate on death row for drug trafficking, and commuted his sentence to life imprisonment instead. The 33-year-old’s case is believed to be the first time since 1998 that the city state, known for its zero tolerance for drugs, has commuted the death sentence of an inmate on death row. Tan was convicted in 2023 of trafficking not less than 337.6 grams of methamphetamine. In a letter from Julius Lim, principal private secretary to the president, and seen by This Week in Asia, Tan was granted clemency by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam on behalf of the cabinet. - SCMP, 15/8/2025
Filipina who spent nearly 15 years on Indonesia's death row tearfully reunited with family members Wednesday after arriving in Manila, where she now awaits a hoped-for pardon in a women's prison. Mother of two Mary Jane Veloso landed at daybreak, then was immediately transferred to prison following a repatriation deal between the two countries over a decade in the making. Technically still serving a life sentence, how long she remains behind bars is now in the hands of President Ferdinand Marcos.This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title "". Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/world/2024/12/18/mary-jane-veloso-arrives-home-to-new-life.html. "Mary Jane Veloso is coming home," Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said.
Will PM Anwar Ibrahim and his Madani Government also be able to do the same for Malaysians about to be executed in Singapore? Maybe not released but repatriated to be imprisoned in Malaysian prisons.
Malaysia,
like more than two thirds of UN Member states are now committed to
imposing a MORATORIUM on execution pending abolition of the death
penalty. This was achieved in a UN General Assembly Resolution
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted its tenth resolution for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty on December 17, 2024, with 130 countries voting in favor, a record high, and 32 against, and 22 abstaining. The non-legally binding resolution calls on all States to establish a moratorium on executions, with the ultimate goal of abolishing the death penalty.
Malaysia votes in favour again in 2024 UNGA Resolution for moratorium on executions pending abolition of death penalty
Malaysians are watching - Will PMX succeed in saving the lives of Malaysians facing execution in Singapore? What are the efforts Anwar and his government did to save Malaysians in being killed - executed in other countries?
TWELVE Malaysian Members of Parliament have jointly appealed to the Singaporean government to delay the imminent execution of Malaysian national Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, who is currently on death row for a 2017 drug trafficking conviction....They further requested that the Home Minister formally appeal to the Singaporean government for a stay of execution while investigations continue.
GOOD, note that some of these MPs are in parties that form the Madani Government - but sadly, their political parties have still NOT COME OUT calling for Singapore not to execute these Malaysians. What about the Malaysian Government, the Home Minister,... what have they done?
HOW MANY MALAYSIANS HAVE MALAYSIA SAVED FROM EXECUTIONS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES?
See also below the KEYNOTE SPEECH at the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) Regional Conference 2025 by Edre U. Olalia, 6 June 2025 - Edre was one of the lawyers that helped Mary Jane Veloso, who escaped execution in Indonesia, and was repatriated back to Philippines.
Malaysian MPs urge Singapore to delay Pannir Selvam execution amid calls for further investigation
Lawmakers noted that the Singapore Court of Appeal rejected Pannir’s most recent legal challenge on 5 September 2025, leaving him at “high risk of execution in the coming weeks, if not days
Updated 3 days ago · Published on 18 Sep 2025 2:21PM
“Pannir is a Malaysian, currently incarcerated in Singapore and on death row for the crime of trafficking 52 grams of drugs. He was sentenced to death in May 2017,” the MPs said in a statement today.
“Since then, his siblings have started a clemency campaign to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment with the assistance of various human rights NGOs.”
They noted that the Singapore Court of Appeal rejected Pannir’s most recent legal challenge on 5 September 2025, leaving him at “high risk of execution in the coming weeks, if not days.”
The MPs contrasted Singapore’s continued use of the death penalty with Malaysia’s recent legal reforms. “In April 2023, the Madani Government took the positive step of abolishing the mandatory death penalty, allowing the Malaysian judiciary greater discretion to convert death sentences to jail terms,” they said. “Since then, Malaysia has halted all executions, earning international goodwill and recognition.”
By comparison, Amnesty International reports that Singapore has executed 16 individuals since October 2024.
The MPs voiced their strong opposition to the mandatory death penalty, stressing its “inherent risk of disproportionately executing minor drug mules, as in Pannir’s case, and its overall incompatibility with human rights.”
They also revealed that in March 2025, Pannir’s family persuaded an independent witness to file a police report in Johor Bahru, implicating two senior figures in a Malaysian drug syndicate who allegedly recruited Pannir as a drug mule.
“We call upon our police to carry out further investigations based on the said police report and urgently update Datuk Seri Panglima Saifuddin Nasution, the Home Minister,” the MPs urged.
They further requested that the Home Minister formally appeal to the Singaporean government for a stay of execution while investigations continue.
“We sincerely hope that these latest efforts will result in the arrests of these leaders of the drug syndicate and convince the Singapore Government to issue to Pannir a Certificate of Substantive Assistance, thus converting his death sentence to life imprisonment.”
The statement was signed by MPs Wong Chen (Subang), Dato’ Seri Mohd Rafizi Ramli (Pandan), Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh (Ledang), Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (Setiawangsa), Dato’ Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik (Balik Pulau), Yuneswaran Ramaraj (Segamat), Kesavan a/l Subramaniam (Sungai Siput), Tan Kar Hing (Gopeng), Haji Onn Abdul Bakar (Batu Pahat), Lee Chean Chung (Petaling Jaya), Ir. Ts. Zahir Hassan (Wangsa Maju), and Puan Hajah Rodziah Ismail (Ampang). - Vibes, September 18, 2025
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) Regional Conference 2025
Edre U. Olalia 1
6 June 2025, Bellevue Manila, Philippines
Hope, Justice and Solidarity.
These
are the very elements that saved Mary Jane Veloso who was spared from
the firing squad practically at the last minute of her scheduled
execution.
Who is Mary Jane?
Mary
Jane is the youngest among five children. Due to poverty, she only made
it to first year high school. Her father used to be a seasonal worker
in a vast sugar plantation while her mother was an overseas Filipino
worker from Saudi Arabia who was a victim of abuse by her employer.
Mary Jane has two children, both boys. Desiring to escape poverty, she went to Dubai to work as a maid but was forced to return before her work contract was completed because her employer attempted to rape her.
In April 2010, Mary Jane was approached by the partner of her kinakapatid(distant relative) in their hometown in Nueva Ecija north of Manila and was told that the latter’s Malaysian friend purportedly needs a domestic worker. Mary Jane paid her P20,000, a motorcycle and her cell phone to supposedly cover employment costs. With only two t-shirts and pants, they left their sleepy hometown for Malaysia.
But in Malaysia, the recruiter informed her that her job was no longer available but she was reassured that she will look for a job for her. After a few days, she was told to pack her things as she will be sent to Indonesia to work. She was given an empty suitcase to put her clothes in and was given money.
Upon arrival at Yogyakarta, airport personnel detected suspicious items in her suitcase through the x-ray machine. Her luggage was inspected and emptied but they found nothing. The luggage was placed back in the x-ray machine but it again detected something which prompted airport personnel to destroy her luggage. To her utter surprise, they found neatly packed in the inner part of the suitcase given to her US$500,000 worth of heroin weighing 2.6 kilograms.
Six
months after she was arrested, Mary Jane was convicted and handed down a
death sentence by firing squad. All legal remedies then in Indonesia
appeared to be exhausted.
1
Lead counsel, Philippine Legal Team of Mary Jane Veloso; Chairperson of
the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and Transitional
President of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL).
Olalia is also the 1 st Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Human
Rights Awardee (Luzon).
In April 2015, when news of
Mary Jane’s scheduled execution was made public to the Filipino people,
Migrante International, the Church Task Force to Save Mary Jane and the
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) launched a global campaign to
save her life. The campaign launched a global petition signing calling
on the Indonesia to spare Mary Jane’s life as a victim of human
trafficking.
The petition became the fastest-growing Change.org petition in history. The campaign was supported by numerous organizations and human rights advocates in the Philippines, Indonesia and worldwide. Human rights advocates, faith leaders and supporters from Indonesia, including the Indonesian Women’s Commission also played an instrumental role in lobbying and advocating for the grant of clemency for her.
Migrante International and the NUPL posthaste flew to Indonesia in a last ditch political and legal effort to feverishly save her life. They linked up with Indonesian groups and advocates, conversed with the international media and closely coordinated with her Indonesian private lawyers. Mass actions were held and media publicity was utilized by various groups in Manila.
Hours before her execution together with eight other nationals who were all males, Mary Jane’s recruiters were taken into custody by Philippine authorities and a case was filed against them for illegal recruitment, human trafficking and estafa(swindling) in a Philippine trial court.
This,
together with the unflinching clamor up to the last minute of
Indonesian women migrant groups reportedly prompted Indonesia to grant
her a temporary reprieve from execution to allow her to testify in the
said court case. That case remains pending to this date and for various
procedural reasons and legal challenges, her testimony is yet to be
taken.
Meanwhile, in January 2020, her recruiters were found guilty of large scale illegal recruitment for a separate case involving three young Filipino women also based in their hometown. The recruiters are now serving life imprisonment sentences.
In December last year, after almost 15 years in Indonesia death row, Mary Jane was finally repatriated to the Philippines. This was a result of the cumulation of all efforts from different initiatives and the persistent campaigns and clamors for her freedom. And it culminated through discreet diplomatic moves by the present Philippine government.
The Transfer Agreement between the Indonesian and Philippine governments did not set any preconditions for the transfer of physical custody of Mary Jane. Indonesian authorities clearly said that the responsibility for her rehabilitation is “handed over to the Philippines, including decisions whether to grant remission or clemency.” Indonesia has categorically expressed that it will respect any such decisions.
The only “condition” requested by the Indonesian authorities is that the final conviction of Mary Jane for drug trafficking should not be questioned anymore and that the Philippines should respect the Indonesian legal and judicial system and process.
Hence, the legal jurisdiction over the drug trafficking case remains with Indonesia but the physical custody is passed on to the Philippine government under a bilateral transfer of sentenced prisoner executive agreement.
It is in this context
that we are again earnestly clamoring for the immediate grant of
absolute pardon to her. After all, absolute pardon is within the sole
power and prerogative of the Philippine President especially if this is
primarily based, as in the case of Mary Jane, on humanitarian and not on
legal grounds.
How was Mary Jane Saved?
On hindsight, what worked for Mary Jane?
She
has consistently and credibly asserted out of court that she was a mere
victim who was duped by an international drug trafficking syndicate.
This served as the pivotal legal argument that served as additional
basis for further appeals before Indonesia courts, and which in turn
made her lawyers sue for time and also contributed to the international
attention to her case.
Quite importantly, the mass campaigns and appeals to save her by and large carried a non-adversarial rather than a hostile tone for Indonesia to exercise “mercy and compassion” and this approach was beneficial to her cause.
Her experience and the circumstances she found herself resonated with the experience of Indonesian migrant workers similarly situated in other countries. This shared experience galvanized efforts that eventually led to her suspended execution, prompted no doubt by strong clamor from international rights groups, lawyers organizations, and even international celebrities.
Her family’s dogged and earnest efforts to save her was very significant. They only had hope to seek justice to get by. They knocked on several doors and persistently went the rounds of government offices only to be frustrated and disappointed. The Philippine government eventually fell all over itself to pull out all the stops in the face of overwhelming public clamor and pressure.
Her father, mother, children and siblings actively took part in the mass campaigns to save her from the gallows. That a poor single mother with two small children slated for execution by firing squad along with eight others of various nationalities who were all males also attracted global media attention and overwhelming sympathy. Her two young sons appearing and appealing before the media pulled the heartstrings of the public.
It must be noted too that her case emerged during the proliferation of social media and benefited from it, including the online petition that gathered thousands of signatures in the span of only a few days from people in different countries. This amplified the calls of activists and religious groups involved in mass campaigns on the ground.
The collaboration and cooperation between her Indonesian private lawyers and her Filipino private lawyers – albeit at the late appeal stage – was active, transparent and direct, particularly in preparing the last ditch petition for a failed second judicial review. The framework and tactics of people’s lawyering also provided direction to all these.
Undoubtedly,
the national and international attention and sustained media coverage –
and the Philippine government’s latest political and diplomatic efforts
- was precipitated by mass actions, appeals and even protests of
progressive people’s organizations as well as the involvement and
concern of church and lawyers organizations over time.
Legal Basis for Protection
The human trafficking angle –
which under international law and treaty obligations (UN Protocol on
Human Trafficking of 2000 or Palermo Protocol I) entitled distressed
migrant workers like Mary Jane to protection rather than prosecution –
also somehow probably factored in Indonesia’s grant of a temporary last
reprieve on the eve of her execution after information that her alleged
recruiters were already in the custody of Philippine authorities.
In
the opinion of her private lawyers, the elephant in the room is the
distinct but not unrelated intersection to the drug trafficking charges
of several applicable laws, namely, 1) the UN Trafficking Protocol of
2000 or the Palermo Protocol I, 2) the Philippine Anti-Trafficking in
Persons Act of 2003 and 3) the Law of the Republic of Indonesia on the
Eradication of the Criminal Act of Trafficking in Persons.
Human trafficking occurs across national borders as victims are transported, sent and received within different jurisdictions. Hence, our view is that once a person becomes a victim in one state, she/he remains a victim in another state, even if she/he allegedly commits illegal acts in any of the states. To view otherwise would defeat the whole intent of the law to combat trafficking and protect its victims.
Under said applicable international and domestic laws, victims of human trafficking, therefore, should not be punished for crimes they were made to commit in the course of their exploitation. The laws provided that these victims are entitled to mandatory legal protection and other services. Their explicit non-punishment clauses prohibit the prosecution of victims of trafficking for crimes which they may have allegedly committed in the course of being trafficked.
But all these are neither here nor there now. Yet this legal perspective must be seriously taken into account in similar cases in the future.
Reflections
As
a sad commentary that rings true to this day, Mary Jane is but one of
millions of Filipinos who sought or are compelled by circumstances to
seek what seem to be better opportunities beyond Philippine shores.
Again, she is a single mother that comes from a very poor family and
managed only to finish first high school and was forced to work abroad
as a domestic helper to support her family.
Calls for her clemency at this stage, though anchored principally on humanitarian considerations, has a subtext: that she is a victim of human trafficking and is a migrant worker in distress that not only needs protection but deserves justice.
Her case highlighted the importance of solidarity through collective actions both in the sending and receiving state, along with the genuine legal efforts and political commentary that ensured that the public discourse would be elevated to a holistic view, nay critique, of the phenomenon and problem of forced migration and the death penalty.
Indeed, today, Mary Jane’s miserable journey – as in many others - persists as she continues to languish in jail, not in Indonesia no more but ironically, in her very own country where she did not commit any crime. And that speaks volumes of what kind of society we have.
The attention generated by the emotive and emblematic case of Mary Jane should be translated to rescue other migrants on death row abroad. In the long view, the same calls should be aligned with the broader political framework of decisively ending the root causes of poverty in the country in the quest towards brighter societal trajectories for the poor, oppressed, deprived and vulnerable.
Her case reinforces once again the imperative for death penalty reform if not the abolition of the death penalty altogether everywhere as well as in ensuring that the rights on those in death row are respected, concerns which ADPAN has taken up as a noble cause.
Otherwise, we will have more Mary Janes of 2015, if not more FlorContemplacions who was hanged in Singapore way back in 1995. 2
Hope, Justice and Solidarity
We
are heartened that ADPAN advocates for clemency and mobilizes public
support to help safeguard lives, the very thrust especially for victims
like Mary Jane.
We are one with you in your goal to raise ““awareness about the social, legal and political dimensions of the death penalty and shedding light on its inherent flaws, human rights concerns, and broader societal implications and to challenge outdated notions and pave the way for change.”
It is indeed laudatory that ADPAN seeks to “build a society that values human dignity, uphold justice and embrace the fundamental rights of all individuals.”
2
For related literature, please see “From Flor to Mary Jane:
Divergences, Intersection and Trajectories,” Atty. Edre U. Olalia,
Monograph Series No. 1, UP Diliman Gender Office, May 2017.
As
the continuing saga of Mary Jane unfolds, her unfortunate journey has
demonstrated that with solidarity, there will be hope for justice for
those who are now already dying even before their impending deaths.#
NOTE:- I would like to thank Edre U. Olalia for sending me the written text of his speech, and allowing me to share with others.
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