A Deepavali Trip To Singapore To See Nagaenthran One Last Time

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When Panchalai Supermaniam travels to Singapore later this week to see her son, it will be their first meeting in almost three years.
It may also possibly be their last.
Her son Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam is an intellectually challenged death row inmate at Changi Prison and is scheduled to be executed next Wednesday (Nov 10).
Panchalai, 59, works as a cleaner and will be using her Deepavali leave to make the trip.
The family learned about the execution date last week on Oct 26 via an email from the Singapore Prison Service.
Nagaenthran’s eldest sister Sharmila Dharmalingam said she cried when she first got the news, worried whether seeing him before he died would even be possible.
How would they navigate Covid-19 travel rules and secure all necessary approvals in time?
Would they need to borrow money to afford the travel and quarantine expenses?
“This is Deepavali time. I don’t know how (the authorities in) Singapore made the decision to give the sentence on Nov 10.
“This is not the right time also because it is during the Covid-19 pandemic. They didn’t think about how difficult it would be for family members.
“We are not from a rich family,” the housewife told Malaysiakini in a phone interview.
This is while they had already spent money to prepare for Deepavali, which falls on Nov 4.
Mild intellectual disability
Back in 2011, Nagaenthran was sentenced to death for trafficking 42.72g of diamorphine into Singapore two years prior. Heroin is made from diamorphine.
According to Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), a legal aid NGO that represents his family in Malaysia, the 33-year-old has a diagnosed IQ of 69.
This is lower-than-average IQ and is within the range for someone with mild intellectual disability.

Since Nagaethran’s execution date became known, several groups have urged Singapore to halt the execution.

The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (Adpan) stressed that executing Nagaethran would violate international conventions.
“The insistence to convict, sentence and execute a person suffering from intellectual disabilities violates Singapore’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which Singapore ratified in 2013,” it said.

LFL, meanwhile, urged Putrajaya to intervene.

“We urge the Malaysian government to make the necessary representations to Singapore authorities to save Nagaenthran from the gallows.
“It is a serious transgression of international law, which even entitles Malaysia to lodge a complaint with the International Court of Justice,” said LFL executive director N Surendran.
An online petition calling on Singapore President Halimah Yacob to pardon Nagaenthran has garnered more than 28,000 signatures as of 5.30pm today.
Trip now crowdfunded
Another group - Singapore-based Transformative Justice Collective - held a crowdfunding campaign to enable Nagaethran’s family to travel to Singapore to see him one last time.
The campaign managed to garner almost twice the targeted SG$9,900 amount.
Using the funds, the collective is now helping arrange documents, flights, accommodation, meals, transport and RT-PCR tests for four family members including Panchalai.
Funeral arrangements have also been budgeted for.
With these financial and logistical burdens off her shoulders, Sharmila said she was very grateful and relieved.
However, she will not be making the trip as she has to remain in Ipoh, Perak to take care of her children and home.
While she is prepared for the worst and looks forward to seeing Nagaethran one last time through a video call, deep in her heart Sharmila hopes her brother will be spared.
“I hope it won’t happen. I hope he will come back to me,” she said. - Mkini

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