My phone rings; the intro to Owl City’s Cave In. +60; a Malaysian number. On the other end is a voice my subconscious registers even before my conscious mind attaches a name to it.
“Hello, I’m Mr Cheong from JB.”
“Yes, I know, uncle.”
On 11 September 2011, We Believe In Second Chances held a forum where we distributed petition letters for people to sign, to be sent to our new president. Mr Cheong Kah Pin, father of Cheong Chun Yin, asked for a few copies of the letter for his son so he could collect signatures from his friends and neighbours at home in Johor Jaya.
“I got over 2000 signatures. I’ve passed them to the lawyer.”
2000 signatures, in less than 10 days. On top of his work in the morning and night markets, and his weekly early-morning visits to his son in Changi Prison. If we ever needed an example of a life shattered by the death penalty, Mr Cheong is just such a person. And he wasn’t even the one who had the run-in with the law.
From the very first time I met him in March this year, he has always looked the same. That worn-out polo shirt, those brown pants and ratty old sandals. That hunched back, the result of years of hard work. That weak half-smile and the perpetually furrowed brow. The sad eyes that lay it all bare: an old man, afraid, alone and lost. Faced with the enormity of his situation – a grown, healthy, able-bodied son just waiting for death – he finds himself helpless.
Based on my observations of the different families I have met over the past two years, it is the most painful, most difficult and most frustrating part of the whole tragedy. Just imagine it: your loved one isn’t sick. He/she isn’t injured, or involved in any sort of accident. He/she is alive and well and healthy… but dying. And not dying suddenly in the unexpected, shocking way of a tragic happenstance. He/she is dying in a calculated, premeditated fashion at the hands of other human beings who have judged and condemned. The clock ticks and the time is slipping away. And all you can do is wait to claim the body.
Ever since Chun Yin was arrested, Mr Cheong has been living alone in their house in Johor Jaya. After divorcing his wife, Chun Yin had been the only child to remain by his side. They worked the morning and night markets together, father and son. He says that Chun Yin had always been a simple boy, a very normal boy who played computer games in his room. He had never been involved with drugs before. “But he’s always been so eager to help people. He would do anything to help anyone,” Mr Cheong says.
When Chun Yin first mentioned going overseas, he hadn’t wanted his son to go. But the boy was grown and he didn’t want to be the old man standing in the way. Every time he thinks back he tells me, “If I had known, I would never have let him go. But we didn’t know it would come to this.”
All alone, Mr Cheong fills his days with work. He gets up at about 3am every morning and prepares to go to the pasar pagi (morning market), selling his DVDs, VCDs and other sundry goods. After the market closes he tries to find himself extra work in the afternoon, right up till it’s time for the pasar malam (night market). He gets home at about midnight or so. He barely sleeps; he says that whenever he’s home, all he can do is stare at the ceiling and cry, because then there is nothing to distract him from thoughts of his son.
Yong Vui Kong's brother, Yun Leong, signing a petition for Cheong Chun Yin outside Changi Prison.
Every Monday, Mr Cheong rides his motorbike across the Causeway at around 3am, heading to Changi Prison. He has to wait about 4 hours at the petrol station across the road for the gate to be opened so he can be the first one in.
He is often seen by Yong Yun Leong and Inah, both relatives of death row inmates. Despite their own sadness, they try to look out for him. ”I feel so sorry for him,” Inah says. Before the forum began, they stood speaking for some time. Afterwards, she drove him to where he parked his bike.
Mr Cheong with Roslan bin Bakar's sister Inah.
Despite our many admonishments and scoldings, he probably went back across the Causeway and straight to work again. Or to collect signatures.
“I got over 2000 signatures. I passed them to the lawyer.”
“That’s great, uncle. That’s really good. We can send them to the President.”
“Do you need some more?”
“No, uncle. Don’t push yourself. You need to get some rest.”
I hear the tired, sheepish chuckle. I can just picture the look on his face; we’ve been over this so many times now. I decide to try one more time.
“Uncle, just get some rest. You don’t need any more signatures.”
“If you want I can get more signatures.”
He’s not listening. He didn’t really need to make the phone call in the first place. He just needed someone to tell him to go get more signatures, so that there would be something for him to do. Anything to keep him from dwelling on his son.
“Okay uncle. You can always get more if you want to. But remember to rest, all right?”
“I’ll rest later. I’ll get more signatures. I just want my son to be saved.”
Mr Cheong kneeling outside the Istana, begging for a stay of execution for his son.
roni63
September 22, 2011
Why can’t humans understand? Only God and God alone can take a life and no one here on earth is God.
Whoever the sinner, whoever the criminal, the state is the biggest sinner, the biggest criminal. It commits serial killing and it justifies its horrendous crimes by suggesting that it is to protect us.
The sad thing is, most Singaporeans buy it. They believe that an eye for an eye is justified. They are then just as guilty of the crimes that the state commits and in our names, using us as the reason for the blood that they shed. It is disgusting! It is appalling!
And while the world moves ahead, one country after another, abolishing the death penalty, our country remains as always, stagnant in everything, including this one. Hanging tightly to a barbaric law, believing itself to be one and the same as God.
Melvin Tai
September 22, 2011
I can feel the pain of this father, for I am a father myself. As a dad, we will do whatever we can to save our child, no matter how difficult it is.
However, if there is no law, the society will be chaotic. Imagine if that amount of drug is slip into the market, how many more heart aching parents will there be on the streets? Literally seeing their children dying away from the abused of the drugs.
I support the spirit of every father to fight for the right of their child to live, but I do not think we can or should blame government over such matter.
Melvin Tai
September 22, 2011
Dear roni63.
For your infor, I am residing in Canada, and I can tell you not everyone is agreeing with you. I have met many Anglo-saxon Canadians who told me that they admire the strictness of Singapore rules, and that is what keeping our country safe, and not theirs.
Just this morning, I met an old gentleman in Queens park. From the conversation, I found out that he is a political science professor from Victoria College. He too, commended that a strict government will ensure a much peaceful society.
Thus, please move out from the comfort of Singapore, and try staying in places like NY, LA etc, and see if u prefer a strict government or not.
Mel
toe (@toematoe)
September 22, 2011
is it possible for Death row inmates to be ported back to their home land for judgement? Malaysia has no death penalty right? i really hate to see people who are young and facing so harsh reality and their parents are the ones preparing their childrens funeral…
Jaymee Goh
September 22, 2011
Mr. Tai, I live in Canada too. And what I have found is Canada, like the USA, is built on genocide and white supremacy!
Not only that, but your argument of “if there is no law” is a strawman. Nobody is saying there should be no laws. What this post is pointing to is the unintended consequences of ONE kind of legal punishment: death penalty. These consequences are the emotional trauma of family members.
You talk about the effects of drug abuse. The death penalty cannot protect against drug usage nor drug distribution; that requires other measures which ALSO include clemency, rehabilitation and careful analysis of why the drug trade exists in the first place. The death penalty in this issue is a cheap way out that only allows the continuation of the drug trade under the guise of justice and “strict government”.
Jaymee Goh
September 22, 2011
Alas, Malaysia also has a death penalty for drug-trafficking, and I have no knowledge if this has changed in the 8 years I’ve been away. I doubt it, though, because we’re pretty fucking crap at this issue too.
Kirsten
September 22, 2011
Hi Mel,
I would just like to point out that there is a line between being strict and killing people. You can’t equate a moratorium of the death penalty to “no law”. No one is saying that there should be no law. What anti-death penalty campaigners are saying is that we need to start thinking about the issues and problems associated with the death penalty (and even worse, the MANDATORY death penalty), and that being strict does NOT mean killing.
On your argument about the drugs:
1. There is no proof that the death penalty is actually a deterrent against crime. In fact, studies have shown that there is probably NO deterrent effect.
2. The death penalty is often visited not on the big drug lords, but on the small drug mules. These drug mules are really at the bottom of the chain, and are often recruited from the poor, the naive, the disenfranchised and marginalised sections of society. To the big drug lords, they are easily replaceable, and so sentencing these mules to death actually does not alter or reduce the drug supply at all. In fact, I know that in the case of Yong Vui Kong, it is very likely that the boss who recruited him is only detained under Temporary Provisions, and will have to be released soon because of a “lack of evidence”, while Vui Kong is on death row.
3. Killing people is not the way to stop people from dying of drug abuse. For example, there could be more education efforts and programs to warn young people away from drugs in schools and at home.
I would like to remind you that the drug mules on death row do not forcibly MAKE people overdose on drugs – personal choice of the consumer plays a big role here, and we can’t actually link any death directly to the mule, so it’s not at all like murder.
Also, as it has been amply demonstrated all over the world, death penalty processes are fraught with flaws and errors. Innocent people have been executed, and innocent people will keep being executed if we keep on going this way. If you take a look at Chun Yin’s case, you will see that there are still questions unanswered and doubts raised as to his guilt of drug trafficking, and whether he deserves the death penalty. If you look at the case of Roslan bin Bakar, there is plenty of doubt. And right now, as I am typing this, people all over the world are in an uproar about the case of Troy Davis, whose execution has been temporarily halted at the last minute while the Supreme Court decides whether to review his guilt. All over the world there are people being executed on doubtful evidence, or even NO evidence.
Is this really the society we want to live in? Or a society we want for our kids?
Kirsten
September 22, 2011
Yes, Malaysia does have the death penalty, and also the mandatory death penalty. However, Malaysia’s de facto Law Minister has said that the death penalty has no deterrent quality and that perhaps it is time for it to be removed. There was a roundtable discussion on the death penalty recommending that Parliament have a moratorium on the mandatory death penalty and a review of the death penalty. You can read more about it here.
Kirsten
September 22, 2011
Again, I do not think a “strict government” is directly equated to “state-sanctioned murder”.
Used?
September 22, 2011
Melvin,
what if the young man is actually innocent – been used?
Kirsten
September 22, 2011
That is actually possible. And is possible for a number of other cases on death row, or who have already been executed.
georgeyeo -not that guy
September 22, 2011
The issue for Singapore is easily narrowed to ONE man and his personality traits.
It is not about the mandatory death penalty, it all boils down to one man who is quiet simply incapable of accepting that he could be wrong – he has a face as big as interstellar space which he can’t countenance to lose!
marcus gomez
October 22, 2011
I agree that they should go for the big guys and not the small mules. How is it possible when the small mules do everything to protect the drug lords?
Had this mule contacted the authorities before he took the trip, the kingpin would have been caught. Is there any point in giving the Singapore police a Burmese telephone number?
Many years ago I almost became an unknowing drug mule and was supposed to deliver a packet to his friend in Singapore. He came around with the ‘birthday present’.
I told him to open it and the guys looked shocked and asked me to trust him. He left with his packet telling me i am not trustworthy.
All the ingredients were there. Why is a guy willing to pay me 600 dollars to deliver a packet to Singapore? He could have easily delivered it himself for free or posted it. Why do birthday presents have to be delivered at street corners to persons with a nickname?
marcus gomez
October 22, 2011
Who will take suitcases from strangers all the way from Burma to Singapore without asking questions. This guy must deserve the penalty for stupidity!
Kirsten
October 22, 2011
Good for you, that you had the presence of mind to avoid being a drug mule and to question intentions. But does it automatically follow that someone has to die, that a son has to be MURDERED by the State, just because he was not fortunate enough to be as clever as you? Are you actually saying that the price for stupidity is death? If that is the case, we’ll probably all be dead – unless you’re saying that you’ve never ever done a stupid thing before (even in hindsight)?