Vigils for Pannir

I spent the afternoon of 27 September in KL, attending the launch of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman’s poetry collection, Death Row Literature. Exactly a week later, in the afternoon of 4 October, I met Pannir’s older sister Sangkari and brother Joshua outside Changi Prison, listening to Sangkari convey Pannir’s request for an outfit for his pre-execution photo shoot: the latest Manchester United jersey and a pair of jeans.

He’d been issued an execution notice that day, informing him and his family that the Singapore Prison Service intends to kill him on Wednesday, 8 October.

This is the third execution notice that Pannir and his family have received; their second this year. It is traumatic, stressful, and exhausting every time. When I saw the family on Sunday evening, the adults were tense but calm after a day spent in the prison complex. The children are too young to understand what’s going on, and run wild together, playing and shouting. I give them plushies to play with, buy them magic markers and colouring books, order pizza for dinner as requested—all the while hoping that these little ones can be shielded from the brutality of this world for as long as possible.

If Singapore actually cares about disrupting drug syndicates, they won’t hang Pannir. There have been developments; the Malaysian police are investigating the syndicate that sent Pannir to Singapore with the drugs in the first place. According to Malaysian parliamentarian Ramkarpal Singh, investigators had come down to Singapore and interviewed Pannir for three hours. In his statement, Ramkarpal said that “investigations… are actively ongoing and there is a strong possibility that Pannir will be a key witness in the prosecution of individuals in Malaysia as a result of the said investigations which could dismantle part of the very syndicate responsible for trafficking drugs into Singapore”.

At a press conference held at the Malaysian Parliament this afternoon, Ramkarpal, Pannir’s family, and human rights groups called for the execution to be halted “in the interests of justice”: “Executing him before the said investigations are completed would only embolden syndicates to continue their operations and continue to use unsuspecting, vulnerable Malaysians and Singaporeans as drug mules—while the masterminds remain at large.”

A legal application has been filed at the Singapore courts seeking a stay of execution for Pannir.

Once again, it is coming down to the wire.

For some reason, Hong Lim Park is booked out every single day between 4–12 October, so we can’t have a vigil or a rally there this week. But that won’t stop us. Tomorrow night (7 October), there’ll be four vigils across Singapore that you can join. Three of them will run from 7–9pm; the one at The Arts & Civic Space will go all night.

These vigils are receiving the precious support and solidarity of groups like Red Dot United, the Singapore Democratic Party, Free Community Church, Students for Transformative jUstice (SATU), and the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME).

Please join one of the vigils; stay for as short or long a time as you can. Such shows of support and solidarity make a big difference, not just to the abolitionist movement but especially to Pannir and his family, who have already endured so much cruelty from the capital punishment regime.

Help us get the word out over the next day—share and forward this newsletter to your networks!