'Death Row Literature' - Puisi teman sepenjara untuk Nagaenthran

Hanya beberapa jam sebelum hukuman Nagaenthran Dharmalingam dilaksanakan, seorang warga Malaysia yang juga menanti hukuman sama di Singapura, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman (gambar utama) menulis satu puisi bertajuk “Death Row Literature”.

Puisi berbahasa Inggeris itu ditujukan khas buat Nagaenthran.

Hukuman gantung Nagaenthran dilaksanakan pada Rabu lalu, sehari selepas permohonan terakhir ibunya diketepikan Mahkamah Rayuan Singapura.

Puisi itu dihantar kepada Malaysiakini oleh adik Pannir, Angelia Pranthaman, 27, yang turut berkongsi bagaimana abangnya itu tidak dapat makan mahupun tidur kerana memikirkan hukuman terhadap rakan banduannya.

Angelia juga berkata yang abangnya memaklumkan semua banduan lain turut terganggu selepas hukuman dijalankan kerana ia dibuat di aras yang sama dan tidak terlalu jauh daripada penjara mereka, dan justeru dapat didengar.

“Bunyi pintu kolong terbuka dan tali gantung yang mengetat sangat jelas didengar banduan lain,” katanya.

Dia berkata puisi itu disampaikan oleh peguam abangnya yang melawat Pannir minggu lalu.

Berkongsi pandangan abangnya berkenaan Nagaenthran, Angelia berkata dia disifatkan sebagai seorang yang jarang bercakap dan seolah-olah hampir lupa bagaimana untuk bercakap, berbeza dengan kebanyakan banduan lain dalam kurungan sendirian.

Nagaenthran disabit bersalah mengedar 44 gram heroin di Singapura, yang dikenali sebagai negara dengan undang-undang dadah paling tegas di dunia.

Berikut adalah “Death Row Literature” nukilan Pannir:

 Death Row Literature

A tragic vision of purposeful blindness.

The premonition of death descending,

Like the dark shadow of night upon the day.

Concrete walls of Hades built by blood.

Decorated with crawled hand prints,

Like a symbol of desperate pleas…

From an extended hand of a disabled mind,

An exhausted soul of a mother,

Seeking refuge for her son

Which has been refused

There is a trace of urgency on the shades (shade of the hand crawl)

As if there is a hidden message engraved

On the wrinkles of those haunted palms

As though it seeks the voice of a messenger

To speak this death row literature

As the last hope for the future

As its last sign before it’s lost

In its last sleep…

Handcuffs, shackles, chains, black veils

Trapdoors, lethal chambers, executioners

Devotedly sang a murderous chorus

As if cheering for evil to take its form

Enticing death to breathe

Through the sorrow of a loved one

To roam and dwell

At the end of a venomous needle

At the circle of knotted cord

At the edge of a sharpened sword

It resides inside the bullet’s shell

It sits nonchalantly as if an invisible ruler

At the throne of an electric chair

To disembowel and devour

The scorched flesh and soul of a “thing”

That just a second ago was called a “human being”

Every life is sacred

The Death penalty isn’t a silver bullet

Let’s not make it a secret

Advocate of death

Greedy for more dead bodies

Adamant to the core

For more blood to pour

Telling killing is the cure

To keep the State pure

They say “there is freedom of expression here”

We ask, “is there freedom ‘after’ the expression?”

We can’t change the past

But the present is the future’s past

It’s about time for us to act fast.

Dedikasi buat Nagaen.

27 April 2022 (ditulis pada jam 3 pagi)

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