On the 18th of March, Noor Atiqah M Lasim was sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court of Malaysia for trafficking drugs. The drugs were found in a packet which she thought contained samples of imitation clothing, which she was supposed to help her friend bring into Malaysia. She was thought to be dead by her family members for two years, until news of her sentencing emerged, and they are desperately trying to raise money for legal consultation, but are more than $40 000 short. The single mother of two is yet another victim of a system put in place in both Malaysia and Singapore, which gives drug traffickers the death sentence.
I feel that the system of giving drug traffickers the death penalty is absolutely unnecessary. Firstly, many of the people caught with drugs at airports are usually unknowing victims who have had drugs planted on them. Those who have knowingly tried to bypass airports with drugs in their possession are usually just runners, forced into drug trafficking by drug ring leaders to pay off a debt, or do it for money for their starving families. The worst case scenario is having to send off a totally innocent person to their death, and the best case scenario is killing a person who is guilty but has no other way out, and the death of that person will cause his family even more poverty and pain, not solving anything.
Secondly, the death sentence, in this case, does not much to deter people from trafficking drugs. The death of one or two small time drug runners will not deter the ring leaders, safe in a far away land, untraceable by the law, from sending even more people to their deaths. Those who are desperate enough to try and work for these drug rings usually have no choice, and have to choose between dying of starvation and dying of from the death penalty, so they
will not be any more deterred.
Lastly, the death penalty is simply inhumane. No one should be sent to their death, even if they have
taken the life of someone else, and especially not if they just unknowingly, or out of desperation, traffic
drugs. The pain and anxiety of a man about to die will end when the victim goes through his punishment,
but the loss of a father, mother, sister, brother or even breadwinner will have a lasting negative impact
on the family of the criminal.
The death penalty should be abolished for drug trafficking, and replaced with a lighter penalty, such as imprisonment
for a certain period of time. This punishment allows the person a chance to turn over a new leaf, and
at the same time is serious enough to deter potential criminals.
1 comments:
Hi Isaac,
I entirely agree with your opinions on the system of the death penalty. The cruel thing about the death penalty is that it doesn't give the criminals a chance to repent.
There are some criminals that have been placed in prison for years, and when these criminals were released, they actually did good and served the society and community. For example, in the recent General Elections, one of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)'s candidates was a former criminal who was released and joined the SDP to serve the citizens of Singapore better. That is why there are initiatives such as the Yellow Ribbon Project; to give criminals a second chance at life, so that they can serve the community and repent.
However, the death penalty does not offer criminals this second chance - it instantly takes the lives of criminals who have potential to do further good in society. These criminals are usually not given chances to prove themselves wrong, and to show their truth worth. Instead, their potential is quashed because of their death.
Thus, I agree that the death penalty should be abolished.
Thanks :D
- Josh S
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