Malaysian government’s statement on the eve of Pannir Selvam’s execution was the final nail

By N Surendran

On the afternoon of 7 October, the Deputy Home Minister Shamsul Anuar Nasarah made a statement in the House of Representatives claiming that the information recently provided by Pannir Selvam Pranthaman to Malaysian police was “of no operational value”.

This statement stunned and horrified the family and lawyers of Pannir. The government had timed the release of this damning statement just hours before the Singapore Court of Appeal was set to hear Pannir’s final stay of execution application.

This was highly prejudicial to Pannir’s application, which was soon to be heard by the Court of Appeal because the stay of execution application was based on the assistance Pannir had given to Malaysian police to stop cross-border drug activities.

Shortly after the statement was made in Parliament, it made the news on both sides of the causeway.

The Malaysian government’s sudden public stand on the matter was the final nail in Pannir’s coffin. The possibility of halting the execution was effectively ended by our own government’s reckless and baseless statement in Parliament at a crucial moment in the legal efforts to save Pannir.

The government’s ill-timed statement was not even correct or reliable. It was factually wrong and riddled with inconsistencies.

Pannir was interviewed at Changi Prison by a Bukit Aman team on 27 September for over three hours. He was asked to identify suspects through photographs.

How is it possible that in less than 10 days the government concluded that there was no value in the information given? How could the police have carried out a thorough and proper probe in a matter involving complex cross-border criminal activity and suspects still at large in just 10 short days? Why the extreme haste in closing the investigation, and consequently sending Pannir to the gallows?

The indecent haste with which the government moved to dismiss the new evidence is shown by the fact that Shamsul wrongly claimed that Pannir was not a mere courier of drugs. This is a blatantly false statement.

The Singapore High Court in convicting him had stated in the judgment that Pannir was a mere courier. This is tantamount to misleading Parliament and the public.

No retraction or explanation has so far been given by the Malaysian government. If the government got such a basic fact wrong in its parliamentary statement, what else did it get wrong?

The government was fully aware that Pannir’s last-ditch application for a stop to the execution was just hours away. Why did they make such a factually wrong and hasty statement at this critical point? This was a great act of betrayal by the government, and it cannot be forgotten or forgiven.

It is the responsibility of every government to protect the rights and interests of its citizens who may be in trouble abroad.

But the “Madani” [compassionate] government did the opposite in Pannir’s case. It removed the final obstacle for Singapore to hang Pannir.

It is significant that Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau, in a statement justifying Pannir’s execution, relied on the statement made by the Malaysian government in Parliament on 7 October.

Throughout the years since Pannir was arrested in 2014, I can confirm on behalf of the family that they received no useful assistance from the Malaysian government or embassy. What the family never expected was that our government would facilitate Pannir’s execution by making such a reckless, rushed and factually wrong statement on the eve of his execution and final court hearing.

While many Malaysians were hoping and praying that Pannir would get a second chance, our own government, by its actions, helped the execution to proceed on 8 October.

Pannir was laid to rest on 10 October in his hometown of Ipoh.

But the Madani government now has much to explain and many questions to answer over its conduct in the days leading to the execution. Pannir’s family and the Malaysian public are entitled to answers.

N Surendran is the lawyer for Pannir Selvam Pranthaman and his family.

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