On October 19, Badrul Hisham Abdul Aziz, Malaysia's...

On October 19, Badrul Hisham Abdul Aziz, Malaysia's representative at the Third Committee of the General Assembly, speaking on items 107 and 108, crime prevention and criminal justice and international drug control respectively, said that each State has the fundamental responsibility to protect its society against crime. For instance, in one of its serious efforts to curb the scourge of drug addiction, Malaysia has made trafficking in dangerous drugs a capital offense. "Quite frankly, we are very concerned about the effort launched by some countries who are calling on other countries to establish a moratorium and to progressively restrict the number of offenses for which capital punishment may be imposed," Abdul Aziz said. "Malaysia further subscribes to the view that it is the sovereign right of States to determine the legal systems appropriate for their respective societies. Malaysia does not believe that the principle pertaining to the rule of law subscribed to by some countries should be the rule of law to be subscribed to by the rest of the world. Clearly, such laws must be respected as reflective of the Malaysian people's will. As such, the provisions containing the imposition of capital punishment in Malaysia shall remain as long as the Malaysian people wish for it to remain. In conclusion, I wish to state that while a crime-free world is a utopia, we nonetheless shall continue our relentless efforts toward achieving this goal and we believe that capital punishment is one of the measures to be used in our quest to achieve this utopia."