KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 — Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang fully supports the call by the Attorney-General to review the case of Mohamad Sani Isa, a disabled person who was sentenced to six months in jail for attempted suicide.

This comes after Sani was charged and subsequently sentenced to six months in jail after the former had pleaded guilty at the Kuala Terengganu magistrate’s court yesterday for attempted suicide by hanging that occurred December 23 last year.

Lim said he supported the call by the AG’s Chambers to review Sani’s case as the Pakatan Harapan administration is in the process of decriminalising suicide.

“This will be in keeping with the Pakatan Harapan’s promise of a New Malaysia — a more humane and caring nation that looks after the welfare of the more unfortunate sections of society,’’ he said in a statement today.

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Currently under section Section 309 of the Penal Code 309 stipulates that whoever attempts to commit suicide, and does any act towards the commission of such offence, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine or with both.

Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the government was in the midst of evaluating and discussing with the relevant quarters to review the need to amend the law on attempted suicide.

Lim added that this much needed step forward will allow Malaysia to progressive positively, especially on international human rights ranking.

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Lim also pointed out that following the historic May 9, 2018 polls, Malaysia has improved drastically in human rights and transparency.

“One important reason why Malaysia had been falling down the slippery slope of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state is because the nation’s leaders had disregarded the compass of nation-building which our forefathers had put together, in particular, the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukunegara. 

“As a result, we have sunk to the lower levels of world indices for human accomplishments, achievements and excellence. 

“If Malaysians had not made the historic decision to bring about a transition of power in six decades, Malaysia would not have achieved the best score and rank on the Democracy Index 2019. Nor (would it have) achieved its best performance since 1995 in registering improvements on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2019 score and 10 placings in the 2019 ranking,’’ he said.

Lim was referring to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2019 where Malaysia was placed 43 out of a total of 167 countries, scoring 7.16 from a maximum score of 10.

However, Lim cautioned Malaysians not to be complacent and urged his fellow countrymen to continue to improve the state of human rights in the country.