KUALA LUMPUR: The government has been urged to impose an immediate moratorium on charges and penalties imposed on individuals attempting suicide.
The National Coalition for Mental Wellbeing said studies have shown that the law inherited from colonial rule does not serve as a deterrent to suicides.
The coalition's focus group member on the decriminalisation of attempted suicides, Datuk Seri M. Ramachelvam, said the moratorium was crucial due to the movement restrictions which has led to widespread disruption to the lives and livelihoods of Malaysians.
"We propose that all pending charges under Section 309 of the Penal Code which states that a person who attempts suicide can be sentenced with up to a year in jail or a fine or both be withdrawn altogether.
"We also urge that Section 10 and 11 of the Mental Health Act of 2001 be applied so that persons who attempt suicide would be made to undergo psychiatric evaluation and care," he said adding that moratorium should be imposed until the law is repealed.
He said this was the most effective solution while waiting for the government to scrap the law, just as other Commonwealth nations, such as United Kingdom, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Hong Kong had done.
"Most of the Common Law jurisdictions have decriminalised this. According to the World Health Organisation, Malaysia is one of the 25 countries that still maintains penal sanctions on attempts to commit suicide and in Asean it is one of the three countries alongside Myanmar and Brunei."
Ramachelvam, who is also the Malaysian Bar Council's Law Reform and Special Areas Committee head, said studies have shown that legislation against suicides has not deterred the act.
However, he said decriminalisation has helped reduce the number of attempted suicides and saved lives as mental health services are engaged soon after such incidences.
"The strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous attempt so it is important for us to recognise that the law does not deter suicides," he said in a virtual press briefing today.
Ramachelvam said the government's review of the law had begun in 2012 under the law reform committee in the Prime Minister's Department. The then health minister had also called for such law to be repealed in the same year and in February 2020, the late Law Minister Datuk V.K. Liew said the Attorney- General's Chambers (AGC) would be directed to proceed with repealing the law.
Since then, the only update has been a parliamentary reply stating that the prime minister's department and the AGC were weighing proposals on repealing the law and placing those who have attempted suicide in treatment centres instead.
Ramachelvam also indicated that the scale of the problem was larger than it appeared as most suicide attempts are covered are up by family and health professionals and police estimate that only 11 per cent of these cases are prosecuted at the end of the day.
An alarming average of four suicide cases daily was reported for the first three months of 2021 while last year, 631 people took their lives compared to the 609 people who resorted to suicide in 2019.
Befrienders Kuala Lumpur chairman Justin Victor said research indicated that out of each successful suicide, 20 others had attempted suicide.
"We need them to feel that they can come out for help without feeling punished," said Victor, who is also a member of the focus group.
The focus group's chair Datuk Dr Venugopal Balchand said the coalition hopes to see the repeal of the existing law.
He also said a change in the law would see the stigma surrounding a suicide bid be shed and for the issue to be addressed more holistically.
"We cannot treat a person who wants to commit suicide as a criminal one day, you and I may be faced with such a predicament.
"The pandemic has affected the toughest of minds, let alone people with emotional susceptibility. People are losing jobs and failing relationships, children are not going to school and condominiums have become convenient places to jump from.
"We need to embrace the fact that Malaysians are suffering and if changing the law is the first step let us do it. We do realise that there are so many stakeholders but we hope and pray that people come together because they are in dire need of assistance now."
Rotary International District 3300 Malaysia district governor Datuk Bindi Rajasegaran said the NCMW platform was created to bring together all stakeholders and provide centralised strategic coordination of efforts in several key areas including the push to decriminalise attempted suicide.
#KW: Covid-19, pandemic, suicide, moratorium