ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

In criminology, there are four reasons for punishment:

1) retribution

2) reformation 

3) rehabilitation

4) deterrence

Retribution is “an eye for an eye.” You did something bad, now you pay for it. Do they really need to pay for it with their life? This is an ethical and philosophical question beyond the scope of criminology. The global consensus is a resounding “no,” with 142 countries having abolished capital punishment.  

Reformation. With capital punishment, the offender is not reformed but, hopefully, society is.

Similarly, with rehabilitation, the offender is not rehabilitated, but then neither is society. 

The goal of both reformation and rehabilitation is similar in that the offender is made to see the error of their ways, to feel remorse and to turn over a new leaf. In the Dutch and Swedish criminal justice systems, the emphasis is on this with counsellors, social workers, probation officers, psychologists on hand as required to turn offenders into useful, productive citizens again. Their systems have been so successful that they have been closing down prison facilities, due to lack of “customers.” But, I suspect, this is only part of a larger education system that emphasises morals, civics and the role of individuals in society.

Sad to say, Malaysians are hardened to the point of being selfish, having an “everyone for himself” attitude towards surviving a hard life. That’s why the majority of people in Malaysia (and here I do include blue collar, uneducated migrant workers) just throw rubbish everywhere they like, ride motorcycles on pavements (kaki lima) and footpaths. They are either too stupid, ignorant, selfish, apathetic or just don’t know any better. Generally speaking, they are a combination of those factors but please don’t discount the fact that ignorance, being unaware of the law, of what is the right thing to do play a big role. To save three sen worth of petrol, motorcyclists daily pull all kinds of funny stunts. I see this with my own eyes on a daily basis. I have to struggle very hard to restrain myself from taking the law into my own hands and mete out physical punishment myself.

But I do curse these people. My curses are very powerful as God hears me, the injustices done to me and expedites the offenders’ karma. People who have done injustice to me, after being cursed by me have gone blind, two have died (one of a sudden mysterious illness after attacking me with a parang, another was a drunk taxi driver who whacked me with a plastic chair after I reprimanded him for harassing my daughter and I by the roadside). 

Sometimes you need to appeal to a higher authority when the criminal justice system is woefully inadequate.

Deterrence has two aspects. Firstly, by meting out the punishment, the hope is for the offender not to re-offend. Capital punishment doesn’t quite serve this purpose but it does guarantee that the offender has no chance of doing anything, let alone re-offending, by putting his life to an abrupt end.

The other aspect of deterrence is to deter other members of society from committing the same or similar offences. However, when there is lack of enforcement, there is no deterrence and people will do what they like including, but not limited to, parking on white lines, parking at bus stops, parking at T-junctions, throwing and dumping rubbish by the roadside, on the pavements, and etc. I have made a playlist of hundreds of videos and photos of such offences in my neighbourhood and posted them on my neighbourhood FB pages, YouTube channels, sent the links to Mr Danny Chan Keat Peng, the MBPJ councillor for my Zone (PJU 6A), my YB Jamaliah Jamaluddin, the ADUN for N036 Bandar Utama but either apathy reigns or they have other priorities, inadequate resources or whatever. My letters of complaint to the mayor of PJ go unanswered, forget about their stupid and useless hotline or website complaint forms - there for show only.

Coming back to abolishing capital punishment. What do you propose as the alternative? Life imprisonment?

Do you know the cost of keeping someone incarcerated for a year is more than the annual tuition fees for a medical student? Have you done a cost-benefit analysis? There is a price to pay for abolishing capital punishment. Are we willing to pay the price? If we want to abolish capital punishment, we need not only be prepared to pay the price, but know what the price is in the first place.

With the world population at 7.65 billion, isn’t it about time we cull those that are a waste of space, of resources, of air? If they choose to not serve or contribute to society in a meaningful manner, why are they here? To procreate even more the likes of themselves?

I haven’t touched on why people turn to crime in the first place. I’ll save that for another post...

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/10/10/law-minister-no-more-death-penalty-death-row-inmates-to-get-reprieve/