The recent debate on death penalty by Feroze Abdullah, member of Parliament at the National Assembly calls for some comments. We do need a serious reflection to consider re-enforcing the death penalty to curb the rising crime rate in the country. A lot of ideas have been expressed criticizing our judiciary system for being too soft in dealing with hard case criminals whose culture are crimes of violence such as rape and murders. The majority of people, if a referendum were made, would demand the re-introduction of the death penalty.

It is worth seeing what some of the victims and public figures have to say on the issue before coming to a conclusion. A balanced judgment can be made if we examine the opinions of ordinary people. To achieve this target, the opinions of different persons were solicited without dragging party politics or any personal issue into the subject.

I fully agree with the idea of capital punishment being re-introduced in Mauritius. Present day society is very different from past society. In the past, crimes were very rare and most of the crimes were due to sudden anger or provocation. But today the condition is so different from the past. Most of the crimes are well planned, pre-meditated, and carried out without the slightest care and remorse on the part of the criminals. Crime has become an industry. Therefore we need to re-enforce the death penalty to curb the high crime rate. The only thing is we should have proper trials.

Let us remember that when some sort of act distorts the order of society, it is the duty of the law to protect human beings. In South Africa a boy who had stolen four US Dollars was sentenced to 18 years? rigorous imprisonment. This is how such a country reacts to crimes.

When analyzing the Mauritian situation, it is critical and alarming. A lot of crime takes place as a chain. Rape, child abuse, murders, etc, are very common. Who is responsible for this ? As a society and as parents, teachers, religious dignitaries, politicians and media personnel, all of us are responsible for this situation. And there, I must congratulate our President of the Republic, Karl Offmann, to put emphasis in all his functional speeches on family values and that charity begins at home and not in any other institutions.

I understand how human rights feels about death penalty. When it comes to such organization as human rights, my questions are simply how about being killed by another human being? Where do our human rights go when this happens? The law must come forward to protect society whenever there is disorder. Today, if a woman can?t stay at her own home alone, how can we define privacy? If you can abuse a small boy for your own sexual satisfaction the law should be rectified to protect human beings and their right to life.

Many people said that re-enforcing the death penalty is a very timely idea and it will help reduce the increasing crime rate in the country. In the Middle East Countries, fingers and hands are cut off even for a minor offence like robbery. In those countries, shops are kept open without caretakers but nobody robs them. Jewellery shops are open without salesmen but there is nobody to rob them.

Rape incidents are very rare.

Some politicians oppose death penalty for fear of being implicated but this should never be the case. Criminals are well-looked after in our prisons and crimes are becoming a sort of culture for them, which they can?t keep away. Therefore, we need a strong deterrent to make these criminals realize that crimes have no place in a decent society. On the other hand, if innocent people get capital punishment the fault is not in the law but in the judiciary system of the country, which has death penalty legislation. Therefore, the judiciary system of the country should be rehabilitated without leaving any loopholes in the law or judiciary system.

Capital punishment should be implemented only when the evidence is very clear. In the absence of strong evidence innocent people can get convicted for murders and other major offences. Therefore the country, which has got death penalty legislation should maintain a proper judiciary system and trials should be handled properly and such a verdict should be given by a jury.

The other fact is when the electronic media dish out everything including pornography, we can?t blame the people for engaging in crimes. When you arouse feelings in them and they do not have any avenues to ease them they somehow try to fulfil their desires. Crime rate goes up due to this situation. Therefore, we have to rehabilitate the whole social system before re-introducing the death penalty.

When scrutinizing the above ideas expressed by some eminent individuals across the island, it is obvious that there are some ?issues? in connection with re-enforcing the death penalty but none of them is related to the death penalty itself but related to the procedure prior implementing it.

Capital punishment, if it were introduced, would definitely make criminals think twice before they strike. It would (1) put off potential murderers (2) protect people (3) show that rape and murder are very wrong and (4) help the victim?s family.

						Ahmad MACKY