Echoes of Christmas from Changi’s death row

IT is Christmas today. For Christians everywhere, it is a time for fun and jollity, a time to rejoice, a time for pudding and morsels of roasted turkey and Christmas presents.

But not on death row. A hopeless sense of melancholy descends on the inmates during Christmas. 

For Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, 35, incarcerated in Singapore’s notorious Changi prison for the last nine years – and on death row for the previous five years – this Christmas is no different from last year’s and the years before last since his incarceration. 

Nothing special for Christmas – just the rigid cold walls of his death row cell and the grim reality that he might not be alive for Christmas next year.

In the true sense of the idiom – dead man walking – Pannir Selvam can only reminisce about the last Christmas he had celebrated with his family in 2013.

The third child of six siblings, Pannir Selvam has an older brother and sister, two younger brothers and a younger sister after him.

His father, Pranthaman Rajoo, is in the transport business and is also the pastor of the Emmanuel Tamil Assembly Church in Gunung Rapat near Ipoh. His mother, Saratha Rajoo is a housewife.

Angelia Pranthaman, Pannir Selvam’s younger sister tells The Vibes: “My brother was arrested at the Woodlands checkpoint on September 3, 2014, and charged with trafficking in 51.84g of heroin. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in May 2017.

“Pannir Selvam appealed the sentence against him but was rejected in February 2018. The family untiringly submitted several clemency petitions on his behalf but they were all rejected on May 17, 2019.” 

Pannir Selvam was scheduled to hang on May 24, 2019, but he managed to postpone his date with the hangman, after being given leave to mount a last-minute challenge on the decision of the court’s refusal to grant him pardon – and the prosecution’s decision not to certify him as a “courier”.

“This is so unfortunate. But as a family, we are still hoping that the court in Singapore will relent and accept Pannir Selvam’s defence, that he was just an innocent and unwilling courier and not a trafficker,” says Angelia.

Last Christmas

“It was a memorable Christmas for our family in 2013 and the last with Pannir Selvam celebrating with us,” says Angelia, adding, Christmas is always a big family affair in the Pranthaman family.

“That year we celebrated Christmas in Malacca. We went to church, we cooked, we had our Christmas meal together, we prayed together, we played sepak takraw together and Pannir Selvam had his favourite Christmas meal of mutton curry prepared by his mother.

“The air of Christmas was all around us, greetings, hugs and kisses, Santa and Santarina, and Christmas carols playing repeatedly.

“Being a typical Malaysian Christian family, our Christmas celebrations are always filled with delight, cheerfulness and charismatic worship, we being evangelical Christians. 

“Fast forward nine years later, today, we are in Ipoh but again without our Pannir Selvam for Christmas. As a family, we are so devastated by Pannir Selvam’s incarceration and the sword of Damocles hanging over his head now.”

The little drummer boy

“I visited my brother on December 10. It was my annual pre-Christmas visit. As usual, Pannir Selvam placed both his arms on the thick plexiglass panel that separates prisoner and visitor and smiled, watched by prison guards. 

“I did the same, placing my hands ‘over his’ on the glass panel and we talked about the recent Malaysian elections and the new government under Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. This was just to break the ice. 

“Then smitten by the month of December, being the Christmas month, he said: ‘Angel, (that’s how he calls me), in the last nine years, I spent Christmas in this cell.

“It has been a miserable and frustrating nine years of Christmas here. Those were the good times, celebrating Christmas with family and friends and in our humble church and home.”

“I nodded in agreement and biting back tears I said: ‘Yes, you and Parthiban (an elder brother) were in the church band. You played the drums and your favourite Christmas carol was The Little Drummer Boy, and you earned the nickname The Little Drummer Boy. 

“Hearing this, his face lit up, and he smiled. Pannir Selvam loves percussion instruments. He also plays the tambourine and the congo bongo,” Angela said.

 “All those good times we spent together with family, friends, and at church, they all seem too distant now,” said Pannir Selvam.

“I do not know if we will get a chance again to relive those good old days. I am missing out a lot but I try to keep my spirits high,” he told Angelia.

“I commended my brother for keeping his spirits high all these years. Nine years is a very long time,” I said, adding, “this is the true meaning of Christmas, waiting in expectation. Waiting with hope for the Saviour to be born and dispel the darkness in our lives.

“Pannir Selvam nodded in agreement before the prison guards took him away and ushered me out.”

On January 17, Pannir Selvam will return to court for a hearing, to know if the decision on his death penalty will be reversed. 

And if that does not happen, Pannir Selvam will have his final powwow with the hangman. – The Vibes, December 25, 2022