As Environmentalists, we stand for life. When we fight for the planet, we fight for all the life it harbours, including Nagaenthran’s.
We recognise that the death penalty, like the climate crisis, disproportionately impacts marginalised communities. There are no less than 50 people on death row in Singapore today, many of whom are minorities from low income brackets.
Names like Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam and Syed Suhail Syed Zin are telling of the communities from which death row inmates are disproportionately drawn.
As the effects of the climate crisis grow exponentially worse in the years to come, these inequalities will only become more pronounced.
It is therefore incumbent on all of us to recognise these inequalities today and do whatever we can to reduce them. When we reduce inequality and centre the most marginalised among us in all our decision-making processes, everyone else does better.
We believe that a just transition must not only mean a reorientation to how we treat our planet, but also to how we treat one another. If we accord dignity and sanctity to life, we must do so unconditionally. Nagaenthran deserves to live, just as every life does.
It is for these reasons that we appeal to the honourable President Halimah Yacob to grant clemency to Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam.
This statement is signed by 7 environmental/civil society organisations and 39 individuals. To view the full list of signatories, visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/enviroagainstdeath