On Wednesday i arrived at KLIA at 8am to send off a Hong Kong citizen, Mr Chu Tak Fai who has been released from Prison, after the Pardons Board commuted his death sentence to imprisonment. He has spent 27 years in Malaysia for drug trafficking.
Chu was arrested by police for drug trafficking on 30th April in 1993, he was sentenced to death in 1994. He lost his appeals in the courts and had applied many times for executive pardon to the Pardons Board, whilst serving his sentence. Finally in November 2016, the Pardons Board commuted his death sentence to 20 years imprisonment.
Chu was only 22 when he was arrested. Today, he is a 49 year old middle-aged man. Which means he has spent his entire youthful years in prison here. He has been ministered by a businessman cum social worker Mr Ho and British Embassy staffs when he was in prison.
When Chu served his sentence in Sg Buloh Prison in 2009, he learned about me from the media. He then requested the social worker who visited him in prison to contact me and asked if I could pay him a visit in prison. However, my application to visit him was rejected by the prisons department, at that time. It was only last year that the Prison Department allowed me to meet him in Kajang Prison, when I was a cabinet minister.
Yesterday, Immigration Department allowed me to meet him in KLIA. He told me this was the first time he has stepped into KLIA. When he first came to Malaysia, KLIA was not built yet.
I told Chu that it was a miracle that he escaped execution, I said God must have great plans for him and have blessed him abundantly. He responded to me with a big smile indicating he believed it. He then said he wondered whether he would cry when he meets his sisters and relatives in Hong Kong. I told him that he should cry, because to cry out is good for the soul.
The Social worker, Mr Ho then gave him a mobile phone and taught him how to use it. He then made a few calls to my secretary. Later, when he was in transit at Changi airport, he called my secretary again. He expressed how tremendously excited he was about going back to his birthplace in Hong Kong.
I recall when I was a cabinet member, former PM Tun Mahathir and former Law Minister Datuk VK Liew came under intense fire in the media and also in the social media, for promoting the abolition of the death penalty. Many said that abolishing the death penalty will only encourage more crime, and that it was unfair to victims of crime.
I still remember the late VK Liew briefing the Cabinet that there are more than 1,200 convicts on death row. Of which, more than 800 were drug related convictions. Many of them were like Chu, they were convicted when they were young, and they have been imprisoned for decades and are currently awaiting execution.
I got a little emotional to send off Chu Tak Fai. Can our society temper justice with mercy and find in them to forgive these convicts so as to afford them a second chance to repent and redeem themselves for their wrongs, especially during their youthful years.
前天上午8点，我到吉隆坡机场去欢送一个曾在马来西亚走私毒品而在马来西亚被判死刑的香港人，朱德辉。朱德辉是在1993年4月30日因走私毒品而被逮捕，于1994年被判死刑。
他在狱中曾多次上诉法庭和寻求皇室宽赦，他在狱中表现良好，因此，在2006年9月获得首次宽赦，接着又在2016年11月获得吉打州宽赦局次轮赦免，将死刑减为20年监禁。
朱德辉在犯案被捕时才22岁，他在马来西亚的监狱服刑27年，今年49岁，已经是个中年人。可以说，他的青春和壮年都在狱中渡过。他在狱中的时候，商人兼社工何先生和英国大使馆都不断的协助和辅导他。
朱德辉在2009年在双溪毛儒监狱服刑时，从监狱里的媒体知道我这个人。他于是通过探访他的社工要求见我，但是被监狱当局拒绝我的探访。去年我终于能以内阁部长的身份要求探监，才有机会在加影监狱见他一面。
昨天移民厅准许我在吉隆坡国际机场送别他，看到他非常开心和紧张。他说他是第一次踏进吉隆坡国际机场，因为当年他来马来西亚时，这机场还没建好。
朱德辉在服刑27年后，逃过鬼门关回国。我对他说，“大难不死，必有后福”，我相信上帝在他身上必有很大的使命。他很开心的回答说，“我也相信如此。” 他对我们说，他抵达香港见到他的姐姐和亲戚时不晓得会不会哭。我对他说，“肯定要哭呀！哭是正常的事。”
辅导他多年的社工何先生买了个手机给他，并教他如何使用。结果他在进入候机室后打了几个电话给我的秘书，他后来在新加坡机场转机时也再次致电我的秘书，显示出他对于回返故乡的兴奋、紧张和嚮往。
当我还在内阁时，前首相马哈迪和前法律部长刘伟强建议废除死刑，面对媒体和社媒的猛烈抨击。很多市民简单化的把废除死刑诠释为鼓励犯罪，和对受害者不公。
记得已故刘伟强在内阁会议里说，我国有一千两百多个死囚，有八百多个死囚跟毒品案件有关，他们很多像朱德辉那样，年轻时无知而犯案，坐牢数十年还在监狱里等着被判死刑。
看到朱德辉成功获赦回国，心里无限的感触。我们社会是否能对这些年轻无知犯罪的人，多一些的宽容，给他们一个悔改，从良和赎罪的机会？