To kill, or not to kill.

For drug smuggling in Malaysia, the penalty is a death sentence. I can see the magnitude and weightiness in hauling drugs and distributing them illicitly conversely I find the death sentence a little too much. The law is after all, man-made. Who are we to resolve which one of us gets to live and who must die?

What do you think? To kill, or not to kill?

On the contrary, rapists and murderers do not get the death penalty. They are sentenced to jail terms usually no longer than 20 years. Don’t you see the ridicule in that, people who take away the innocence and lives of others get to see daylight again someday? Some don’t even have to wait longer than a decade, which is absolutely outlandish.

Nonetheless I do not think that they deserve death. I just think the duration of the jail verdict should be elongated. A very wise man once said, an eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind (Gandhi). So even if a person has killed, it does not give us the right to take a life away. We are in no position of doing so.

Do you really think killing is the answer? Killing is supposed to be inhumane.

How about lethal injection, is it more humane than hanging? I don’t know, it is still killing, is it not? Back in the olden days (I’m saying really really old, like centuries ago), and in some parts of the world, people did whatever they feel is right to chastise those who have committed felony. For adultery, I think the Chinese used to tie people up, lock them up in a basket and leave them to drown in the river/sea.

Even now, some places practise very vicious directives. People who steal lose an arm, people who have premarital sex are stoned to death. Those, are only to name a few. I think at such time and age of the world, people ought to be more, how do I say this.. more cultured. All these killing and torture in the name of justice really doesn’t hold up.

What’s wrong with a life-sentence?

Yes maybe we will soon run out of space and will be forced to build more prisons to lodge so many inmates and the population will only augment but I think that should not be a crisis. We’re wasting so much of land for commercial purposes anyway, am I not right? No matter how bad a person’s doing is, I believe no one deserves to die. We do not have a say in that.

I recently read an article on how this guy imprisoned his own wife in a cellar in their home for 16 years while he lived with another woman. And you know what the police think? He could face jail sentence up to 8 years. I don’t know, is this some kind of a joke?

So yes, we can ascertain whether a person has done wrong according to the legal system but I do not think any of us should be given the right to establish on whether one gets to live or not.

In this place we’re living in.

What is wrong with some people today? Every time I turn on the news, read the papers, or check the world ongoings on the Internet, all I see is bad things happening all over the globe. Is it just me, or does it seem like no one really gives a care about what’s going on? I read about fathers raping their daughters (some are barely above the age of 12), I come across young girls being missing then found a couple of days later – raped and body dumped, I see innocent people losing their lives to natural disasters or reckless driving.

And the thing is, we can do something about it. The matter is whether we choose to or not. Recently, a mother was convicted of murder, she killed her young daughter over a poem. The girl could not memorise it and out of frustration her mother beat her to death. And what was her sentence? Five years of jail. Why such light sentence? It was not explained. Even if she can prove that she’s mentally ill or challenged, she should be put away in an asylum. A murder is a murder, it does not mean when someone repents, they don’t have to pay for it.

Same goes for rape cases. Men go to jail for only a couple of years and then they’re on the street again. They should be punished severely. Make them go for sex rehab or something after serving jail-term. They should be whipped. There must be heavy consequences so that people will think twice before committing an offence. These convicted criminals will serve as a reminder to those who have the urge to do the same thing. I think campaigns should be widely done nationally so that abused women and young girls are not afraid to step forward.

I just feel that people are not doing enough to curb the problems we’re facing and they’re growing at a rapid rate. Same goes for baby dumping, last I heard was that they opened a centre for young, unmarried, expecting women and at that place, they will be given care for. Good job. But I also heard that these young mothers will also be charged. Because it is mainly opened for Muslims and according to their religion, sex before marriage is against the rules. So that defeats the purpose of opening the centre altogether. Who’s gonna even think about entering, it’s like a self-inflicted sentence.

We’re spending close to a billion to build another palace. I just think it’s unnecessary and the money can be used for so much more to help mankind. It can be used to end poverty in rural areas, bring up and civilise those rural areas with electricity, water, and transportation. It can be used to lighten the burden of single parents. Bring more convenience and comfort to orphans and the people at old folks’ home. Build more schools so that the children from small villages get the same privilege as those being raised in the city.

Help those who are in need of funds to undergo life-saving operations. Put up funds for the needy whether it is for education or for a better life when it comes to the less fortunates. And there are so many more that can be added to the list. Instead of wasting money beautifying places by placing fountains or decorative sculptures, why not invest the money into more practical matters such as the citizens? Many are in need of money to pursue education, many are in need of money just to merely survive.

Drivers for travelling agencies and public transportation are not checked appropriately, that’s how some drivers who are on drugs can drive an express bus and cause the deaths of innocent lives. Spend money on background checks. Use the money to pay hospital bills of the surviving victims. Spend on campaigns to promote organ donation so that all those people on that list of death can have a higher chance of making it out of the hospital alive. And all of the above mentioned, are only the recent issues happening in Malaysia. I have not even gotten into the issues currently faced by the world.

There’s so much more than just going to work, coming home, eat, sleep. Same old routine everyday without wanting to even care about this place we’re all living in.

Everyone deserves a fair chance at life.

Miners in Chile have been trapped for months and what some of their family members can only think about is getting in the limelight by giving interviews or press releases. Some even go to the extent of receiving goods donated by kind people and using them as their own. Best part is these people are only distant family members or barely even related. How can such people exist in this world? People are fighting for their lives, people are doing all they can to save these lives, and then there are those who take advantage of the situation without a tiny pinch of conscience or guilt.

I hope all of them will be saved and given ample care to soon. It’s been too long and one can’t even begin to imagine the sorrow they have to deal with. This is not the first time such thing happened, I remember once it took place in China and thankfully they were rescued. I hope this kind of situation never have to take place again.

Recently a horrific accident involving a travel express bus took place at the North-South Highway and many were left dead. Some paralysed, some still in ICU. Many are robbed of their futures and dreams, hopes of a bright life ahead were dashed. Most of them are only teenagers or young adults, barely lived life and they have to go through such unfortunate mishap. And to call it an unfortunate mishap sounds like an understatement. All the people can say is we must conduct background/health checks before employing drivers but don’t you think it’s a little too late now?

Why does it always have to cost lives for people to come to realisation that prevention is better than cure? There is no cure here, people are dead and there’s nothing anyone can do to bring them back to their loved ones. What the government should do is settle the hospital bills for these victims, make sure the families of the deceased are taken care of. Make sure every bus driver goes through intensive training and they are monitored well. Everything has to do with the system in Malaysia. I think people take it too lightly.

There are always loopholes with every system there is here; legal system, education system, etc. When a person commits a horrendous crime, they pay it off with money. Many firms do not adhere to regulations imposed by the government and they get away with it with some bribe under the table. Students with excellent results get turned down by public universities. And there’s plenty more.

If there’s one thing that needs fixing, it’s the system.

How much more is it going to take?

Recently a big case has been taking over the papers, murder of four people by two lawyers in Malaysia. These two lawyers cheat people of their money by selling non-existent lands or those that are already sold. Apparently there are already a few others dead before this – those people confronted these two lawyers after discovering the scam I suppose. For quite a period of time all these were concealed until the disapperance of the four people and that sparked attention.

Bodies were found and these two lawyers plus their workers who helped in the murder are already in police custody. Now what’s really interesting is that these two lawyers – brothers, have multiple fraud cases piled up against them yet no one took action and their licenses were not revoked/suspended. Why? Bribery. With the jury system abolished, it’s easy to buy just one judge to solve the problem. No questions asked. If the system were non-faulty and everyone did their jobs like they were supposed to, these men would not even be practising lawyers in the first place.

Those four people died – they’d probably still be alive today. Who knows how many more ended up dead when they found out the true story? You want to put the blame on these men, of course, they committed murder. But the system allowed them to do so. If the people in charge were efficient at their jobs and were not greedy, justice would have been served without sacrificing the lives of the innocent.

It is always the case where someone has to die for people to come to realisation.