Singapore Government Takes Away Another Life.

There can be so much arguments on the death penalty but a story like this shows how senseless state sanctioned murder is.

Filtered through the lens of journalism - the report wants us to believe that Took exhibits a sense of calm. Truth or Illusion? Nobody knows except the man himself.

The media will like us to believe that this was how it ended. It will however not report what happened at the actual execution - how cruel, cold, brutal and barbaric it is. If people can see for themselves what the death penalty is, many among us will denounce the death penalty.

The media has no access to the actual execution; and hence, is paid and forced to write an article which the state wants us to believe. This article surfaces to tell us the tragedy of murder - an eye for an eye. It is a cautionary tale spun to make us believe that Singapore believes in justice.

Yet, it will never tell us the truth...

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A picture of calm
Murderer Took did not look like a man about to die in the days before his hanging
Weekend • November 4, 2006

Ansley Ng
ansley@mediacorp.com.sg

IN THE last few photographs of him taken when he was alive, child killer Took Leng How did not look like a man who had only a few days to live.

Took, 24, who was hanged at dawn at Changi Prison on Friday, had asked for pictures of himself to be taken before his execution for the murder of eight-year-old Huang Na. The former vegetable packer was sentenced to death for killing the Chinese national in October 2004.

The Court of Appeal upheld the decision in January this year. Last week, President S R Nathan rejected Took's plea for a pardon.

In more than two dozen photographs taken in prison on Monday, Took — wearing a black suit that his mother had bought him specially for the photo session — was all smiles.

Flashing his trademark grin and thrusting his chest towards the camera, his exuberance suggested that he wanted to leave his family with only good memories.

On Friday, after he was embalmed and dressed in the same suit he wore for the photo shoot, Took's body was taken to a funeral parlour in Sin Ming Drive.

A handful of family members — including his parents and Chinese Indonesian wife Yuli — turned up to chant Buddhist prayers.

Took's mother Loo Swee Heow and father Took Long Lai showed no emotion throughout most of the proceedings.

Speaking calmly to the media, Mr Took said his son's last words were for them to take care of his wife and three-year-old son, Soon Wang.

But when the undertaker told his family to take one last look at his body before closing the coffin — leaving only his face visible — Madam Loo broke down and thumped her fists on a pillar, wailing: "Give me back my son!"

Took's father refused to enter the parlour to have a final look at his son.

Mdm Yuli, clutching a letter that Took had written to her hours before his execution, broke down in tears after reading it.

Took, addressing his wife as "Mak" (mother in Malay), apologised for creating the "situation they are in".

Mdm Yuli could stay with his family as long as she liked, he wrote, or she could return to her hometown in Medan.

He thanked his wife for the love notes she had written him over the months he was in custody.

"People can die, but love doesn't," Took wrote in neat handwriting, then drawing a heart. "My love for you will never die."

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