It's time for Malaysia to abolish the death penalty...

Pardons are given by Sultans....and that is why we are looking at the Pakatan Rakyat states to start the ball rolling by at least commuting death penalties to imprisonment sentences...

PETALING JAYA: The Govern­ment should abolish the death sentence, said former Suhakam commissioner Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam.

“I feel rather disturbed that there are about 100 people on death row, some for many years,” he said.

He said he was not saying that the pardon system was not working, but that it was “rather slow”.

Siva was one of panellists at the “Human Rights in Malaysia under the New Economic Model” forum held at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) here yesterday.

“Waiting for the death sentence to be carried out is a bigger punishment than when the judge passes the sentence,” he said.

On another matter, Siva said the people born in this country should be given proper documentation to take over jobs held by foreign workers.

“The Government must speed up the process of giving birth certificates and identification cards to those born here.

“This issue should not be raised only during elections,” he said in reference to the matter being raised in the Hulu Selangor by-election campaign.

Other panellists were Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching and Wong Nai Chee from the MCA National Youth Bureau. The forum, moderated by Utar Centre of International Studies chairman Dr Stephen Leong, was organised by the university’s Centre for Social Change and Trends. - Star, 27/4/2010, Siva: It’s time to abolish death sentence