Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar speaks to the media during a press conference in Putrajaya June 13, 2022. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
PUTRAJAYA, June 13 — De facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar is hopeful Malaysia will be able to abolish the mandatory death penalty by early next year.
To do so however, he said the government will need to table the amendments to existing laws in Parliament by the last quarter of the year.
“Due to constraints in time, I want to try and see if we can debate this matter in October when we table Budget 2023. We can bring up questions and gather responses to these amendments we made and decide what we should do at the same time.
“Following that, the Dewan Negara can then discuss it further in December this year and hopefully by January 2023 we can properly implement these amendments,” the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department told a press conference here today.
“This way we won’t be in such a dilemma as the law would be properly abolished. Any cases in court or cases that need to be retried can go ahead and we won’t feel like we have interfered in any investigations or cases, in short we won’t be conflicted,” he added.
Wan Juaidi said the government plans to gather public feedback before tabling the proposed abolition in Parliament.
He said the government welcomes anyone who wants to respond to its proposal on this topic, whether it be through the press or social media.
“Public survey is welcomed, and they can respond on social media. We will do a survey and we want to hear both sides.
“This would be similar to the anti-party hopping law survey but not in detail like during an election. We will accept any responses and we want a lot,” Wan Junaidi said.
News reports indicated that more than 50 per cent of Malaysians surveyed by political parties and social media influencers in late 2020 were in favour of the anti-party hopping Bill.
Wan Junaidi said the government will also draft pre-sentencing procedures, form a sentencing council, develop guidelines for sentencing, form a committee for renewing laws, make institutional reforms to the prison system and make sure sentences are meted out to restore justice in the criminal system.
