Bill To Decriminalise Attempted Suicides Set For 1st Reading In Parliament

Malaysia is looking to decriminalise suicide attempts in a bid to prevent suicides and to encourage those affected to come forward to seek help.

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The Bill to decriminalise suicide attempts will be tabled for its first reading in Dewan Rakyat today.

This comes after a landmark move in the August House yesterday where parliamentarians, in a voice vote, agreed to repeal the mandatory death penalty.

In a statement today, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said the bill relating to the decriminalisation of suicide attempts will include the following policies:

The first policy will be the abolition of the offence of attempted suicide under Section 309 of the Penal Code.

This, she added, is based on the fact that suicide attempts are within the scope of suicidal behavior and is an impact of mental incapacity or a psychiatric disorder.

The second policy will include retaining the offence of aiding and abetting suicide under Sections 305 and 306 of the Penal Code.

In other words, this policy views aiding and abetting attempted suicide by any person as a criminal offence.

Furthermore, it will also differentiate cases based on the category of people who are incited to perform related actions.

In the statement, Azalina added that the there will also be a strengthened and improved punishment proposed for suicide cases involving children and incapacitated persons compared to other victims.

This is because this group of people, unlike the rest, can be easily influenced and manipulated by perpetrators thus making them a vulnerable group.

The third policy involves introducing Crisis Intervention Officers and giving them arresting powers under the Mental Health Act 2001 (Act 615).

This, she said, is because with the proposed amendment of decriminalising suicide attempts, there is a need to manage such cases by relevant authorities.

She added that there is also a need to manage suicide trial cases by the law enforcements involved.

The fourth and final policy according to Azalina would be to propose a moratorium on the implementation of Section 309 of the Penal Code until the repeal of this section is completely implemented and duly gazetted based on the relevant legal provisions.

She added that this will facilitate matters related to enforcement and prosecution.

Decriminalising attempted suicides is a work in progress by the government to prevent suicide cases from taking place. It is also expected to encourage those affected to come forward to get help, remove the stigma and subsequently lower the suicide death rate in Malaysia.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said

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