Cheong Kah Pin is 70 years old, has high blood pressure and heart problems, yet he still gets on his motorcycle at 3am every Wednesday to ride from Taman Johor Jaya across the Causeway to Singapore.
He arrives before visiting hours open at Changi Prison and waits at a nearby petrol station until 8am. The staff there sometimes offer him coffee. A church in Singapore has given him meals and bought him a motorcycle over the years. He accepts these kindnesses and keeps going back.
His son, Cheong Chun Yin, 44, the oldest of his four children, has been inside since 2008.
What it cost to keep his son alive
As reported by FMT, Chun Yin was arrested in Singapore on a drug-trafficking charge and initially sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and caning.
Kah Pin, who spent decades as a vegetable seller building a modest life, sold three houses to pay for legal fees. He also paid people who told him they could help secure Chun Yin’s release. None of them could deliver on that promise.
“I just wanted him to be well and come home. It doesn’t matter if I don’t have houses or money. I just want my son to come home,” he said.
Former DAP assemblyman for Johor Jaya Liow Cai Tung has stood by Kah Pin for over a decade, including through efforts to save Chun Yin from the death sentence. Before each Wednesday trip, Kah Pin stops at her office to get help with the MyICA Mobile app required for travellers entering Singapore.
“You can see his biggest worry is his son. He wants to earn more so that if Chun Yin is released, he will have enough money to support whatever he wants to do,” Liow said. “We hope Kah Pin stays in good health to see his son released.”
The life before Changi
Before prison visits became the rhythm of their lives, Kah Pin and Chun Yin used to work side by side at the night market, Chun Yin selling cassettes, CDs and DVDs while his father managed the vegetable stall nearby.
When asked what he misses about his son, Kah Pin does not speak of birthdays or celebrations. He remembers coming home after a long morning at the market to find a meal cooked by his son.
and the time their car broke down and Chun Yin insisted on pushing it himself.
“He was always willing to help people. If a friend asked for help, he would agree,” Kah Pin said.
One photograph holds particular meaning for him, taken after he bought his first house, showing him carrying a young Chun Yin on his shoulders, looking up at his son while the toddler smiles at the camera. Neither of them could have imagined how their lives would eventually be measured.
A father still holding on to hope
Kah Pin still sells vegetables at morning and night markets despite his health. He is driven by the hope that Chun Yin may one day be granted early release and needs money set aside to help his son start over. Both hopes are racing against his declining health, and his biggest fear is that he may not live long enough to see his son walk free.
When he sees Chun Yin during visits and finds him doing well, he said, his heart feels at ease. That is enough to keep him making the ride every Wednesday at 3am.
The families who didn’t get a commutation
Chun Yin is one of the luckier ones. As recently as July 3, 2026, Singapore executed a 44-year-old Malaysian convicted of drug trafficking.
In February, Malaysian Lingkesvaran Rajendaren was executed for a drug-related offence, with Amnesty International and four other organisations condemning it as a violation of international human rights law.
Since January 2026 alone, Singapore has carried out multiple executions, the majority involving Malaysians or individuals of Malaysian origin. For each of those families, there was no commutation. Just a letter from the Singapore Prison Service and a date
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‘I gave up my family to pursue my dreams’ Shares 34 YO M’sian woman
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