KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — The Cabinet’s decisions to abolish the death penalty and to suspend the use of the Sedition Act 1948 are welcome moves, Syahredzan Johan said today.

Syahredzan, who is Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang’s political secretary, reiterated his stand that the Sedition Act was an anti-democratic law that restricts the fundamental freedoms of Malaysians and said the Cabinet’s decision to suspend the law was the right move.

He said the decision to scrap the death penalty is in line with the principle that each human life is valuable.

"Everyone has the fundamental right to life and to live and no government has the right to take someone’s life,” he said.

While acknowledging that the supporters of the use of death penalty have justified it to deter the public from committing crimes, Syahredzan said this was not proven.

"However, this claim has been proven wrong many times and there is no concrete evidence that the death penalty is more effective in reducing crime as compared to jail sentence for life,” he said.

"Besides that, in an imperfect criminal justice system and when the correct decision cannot be guaranteed at all times, the abolition of the death penalty gives space and the opportunity to fix the situation if there has been an error in conviction,” he added.

On Wednesday, law minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong said the Cabinet has decided to do away with the death penalty and that the necessary paperworks are ready to tabled in Parliament.

Yesterday, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo said Cabinet had on Wednesday decided that enforcement of the Sedition Act should be temporarily suspended since the government plans to abolish it.

Gobind also said the attorney-general—who decides on whether to initiate or pursue prosecutions—will be informed of the Cabinet decision regarding the Sedition Act’s suspension.