Although as many as two thirds of all countries worldwide have already abolished the death penalty, many countries in Asia still maintain it for serious criminal offenses. According to the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the death penalty should only be permitted for serious cases involving loss of life. In Southeast Asia, however, most suspects sentenced to death have committed crimes related to drug trafficking.

To look into the trend towards the abolition and retention of the death penalty among ASEAN countries at the first Asian Regional Congress on the Death Penalty held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 11-12 June, Prachatai interviewed Chow Ying Ngeow, the Executive Director of the Anti-Death Penalty Asian Network (ADPAN), an organization which together with Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) (Together against the Death Penalty) organized the first Asian conference to aid the effort to abolish capital punishment.

Chow Ying Ngeow, the Executive Director of the Anti-Death Penalty Asian Network (ADPAN) at the Asian Regional Congress on the Death Penalty held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 11-12 June

Among ASEAN countries, what do you think are the major obstacles towards the abolition of the death penalty in the region?

I think it’s political will. For example, we have met with a few politicians for the past couple of days in parliament. Some of them showed interest in this area, but I don’t see a strong commitment and connections towards the abolition of the death penalty. I think it also has to do with the political situation, where, in the context of Malaysia, the ruling government does not engage with civil society. I think the Singaporean government is also like that. I’m not sure about Thailand though. They just don’t want to engage with us or have dialogue with us, to really put our suggestions across.

Some people tend to equate pro-human rights policies with certain level of socio-economic achievement. In ASEAN, however, countries which are better-off economically are the ones that still strictly apply the death penalty. What do you think about this?

In the Philippines, I think it’s partially because it’s a strong Catholic country. In Laos and Cambodia, when people look at them, they might seem less developed in comparison to other nations in the region. However, when it comes to the death penalty, they seem to be ahead of many countries in the region. This is something really interesting, but not many people have studied it and compared why is it so. I don’t really know actually.

A lot of speakers at the conference talked about the influence of the media on the application of the death penalty. Do you think that the media in this region plays a positive role towards the abolition of the death penalty?

No, actually, I don’t think so. The media mostly sell stories that the public wants to hear. So, for example, in the recent executions in Indonesia, the media actually glorified the whole thing. In terms of helping the abolition movement, even in Taiwan if you understand the landscape of Taiwan’s media freedom, the media response on this issue to a certain extent even closes the dialogue between the abolitionists and retentionists [of the death penalty] because the sentiment that they tend to play. And the effect of this is very strong for a lot of ordinary people, who don’t really go into the issues of the death penalty because if you talk about this [the death penalty] there are so many things to talk about from many different angles. But for ordinary people they don’t really see that at the back, so what they read and understand about the death penalty is all from media reporting. That’s the thing. So, I think it is important for the movement to really engage with media partners and friends to pass on the message about the death penalty because even for some journalists they don’t really know much about this either.

What do you think about the criticisms from death penalty supporters that the abolition of the death penalty is a form of western cultural imperialism?

Well, I think this death penalty issue is not so much of cultural imperialism. I mean, there are people who say that Asian people want to retain the death penalty. But this is, to me, beyond cultures and religions. This is something about a person’s life and I think that it is universal whether you are in the west or in the east. Everyone should cherish and respect life, so I find this argument a bit weird. I mean, what do they really mean when they talk about cultural imperialism? I mean China is apparently very strong now and the west is also strong, so which cultural imperialism do we really talk about here?

As I understand it, most people on death row in this region were convicted for crimes related to drug trafficking, so has there been any concrete evidence to prove that the application of the capital punishment is effective in reducing drug trafficking activities?

In fact, we should have the data, but unfortunately we don’t have the data. I think Harm Reduction International, they have done some research on this area and I’m sure they will have some, maybe not direct to the point, but some indirect statistics to show. We know as a matter of fact that, for example, in Malaysia we have 977 people on death row. And 50 per cent, actually more than 50 per cent, received the death sentence from drug trafficking cases. I personally have handled drug trafficking cases. Now, the law says that whoever carries illicit drugs will be given the death penalty and people would say that these people deserve it because they commit something bad. But, if you approach these people and listen to their stories, most of them are being used, I would say, because the kingpin or persons in the big whole picture, they know about the law. So, of course they would not carry the drug themselves. In the end, it is small guys who are probably not very well educated, who are being put on death row. I mean, just imagine if I have the drug and I know that it’s a criminal offence in any part of the world, I of course would not carry it myself. I would get a small boy to carry it for me without doing it myself definitely, so these are the people who actually get the death penalty. Therefore, how does it reduce drug trafficking really? If one is gone, they can just call on others because to them [drug dealers] they just don’t care, it’s just the life of another person. 

Currently, countries such as Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka are now reintroducing the death penalty. What do you think are the factors behind this trend? 

There is so much killing in the world. You have terrorism, bombings, killings, and all these things. I think partially some people would think that the best justice is to kill these perpetrators. It’s the whole environment around the world where we really see too many killings, too much conflict; that raises the emotions of the people to the perception that justice can only be done by the death penalty. For example, in Taiwan, every time a terrible crime occurs, the whole society will condemn it to the point that they will even condemn people who are calling for the abolition of the death penalty, because they think that this is the only justice that can be achieved.