Mother still proud

Press, 24 June 1986, Page 10

Mother still proud

NZPA-AAP Perth “He’s a lovely person and I’m so proud of him. “Even now he’s thinking all the time and easing things for me; giving me strength,” said Mrs Sue Chambers yesterday from Malaysia, of her anguish after seeing her condemned son, Brian, in Pudu Prison days before he expects to go to the gallows.

Brian’s concern was mainly for her, Mrs Chambers said.

“He said, ‘Don’t worry, mum. I am not afraid. I am very close to God’.” -

Mrs Chambers said she was concerned that her son was extremely thin. “He’s not admitting to it but he looks very frail, and I don’t think he’s

getting any sleep.” She has been supplying her son with almond honey, home-made biscuits and chocolate, which he has been sharing with other prisoners.

For the last six months they had seen the cells of other inmates cleaned out every so often. “Imagine what it’s like to see each one of the people they have got to know as people, not as criminals, go to be hanged,” said Mrs Chambers.

While she said she was concerned about drugs and understood that Malaysia had a serious problem, she was totally against capital punishment.

“A life is such a preci-

ous thing, and for someone to just say I will choose a time and snuff that life out, it’s rather obscene.” She did not know whether there was any hope of an eleventh-hour reprieve.

“It’s never too late for the Malaysians to give clemency. Even now the governor could change his mind if he’s big enough,” said Mrs Chambers.

She expected to see Brian again but did not know what she would say to him.

“How do you say goodbye to someone who is still there? We have had to make funeral arrangements for someone who is still alive.”