Increasing death rates with decreasing sextons
By Aw Yong Ming Min and Edmund Yaw
SLIPPERY GRASS AND HIDDEN HOLES: With flexible working hours, Mr Rohaizat Roza works around the clock going to different cemeteries to clean them up. PHOTO BY AW YONG MING MIN
After picking up several bouquets at Leah’s flower shop, Mr Rohaizat Roza, or known as Izat, enters his van and arranges his pieces of equipment in order. Taking an insect repellent out, he sprays it on himself in preparation for his next tombstone. After preparations, we hopped into the van and drove deeper into Choa Chu Kang Cemetery, the only active cemetery left active in use.
Bumping along the old road, the 32-year-old slowly drives to his destination. After a five minutes drive, we reached Blk 10 of the old Muslim Cemetery. Majority of the graves were old and covered in overgrown grass. Getting his grass trimmer out, he cautions us to be careful of any snakes hiding in the grass and sets out to start his day as a sexton.
What is a sexton?
Before jumping into the story, let’s talk about what a sexton does. A sexton is defined as “an official of a church charged with taking care of the edifice and its contents, ringing the bell, etc., and sometimes with burying the dead”. To put it simply, a sexton is someone who helps cleans the graves and maintain cemeteries. Just how many cemeteries are there in Singapore? Even though we aren’t sure of the exact number, there have been cemeteries that were cleared in the past to make space for buildings and stations.
Some cemeteries managed to cement themselves into the landscape of Singapore, like the Japanese Cemetery Park. All cemeteries would have at least one sexton to help maintain the graves there.
A sexton can be someone who is hired by a company. One such sexton would be Mr Izat, who founded his own company, the R8 Services. From landscaping to repainting, and even doing varnishing work, Mr Izat does not just focus on cleaning the graves from overgrown grass and weeds. As he works alone, the time needed to clean each grave would depend on the condition of the grave.
FRESH FLOWERS FOR THE GRAVES: Depending on the condition of the grave, the number of tools would increase. Typically, it would range from five to ten devices. PHOTO BY AW YONG MING MIN
Mr Izat did not work as a sexton for a long time and only started in February this year. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his previous job as a safety coordinator was severely affected in April, and his services had to be terminated. Mr Izat had to find other sources of income then, but there was a lack of job openings. Mr Izat then decided to help one of his friends he knew were working in the cemeteries. She was selling flowers by the roadside to families visiting their loved ones’ graves.
After helping out to sell flowers and occasional cleaning of graves, he realised that sextons were a job that was not heavily affected by the pandemic. Leah Flower shop was a shop that was set up in Choa Chu Kang cemetery after the authorities shut down roadside stores.
He knew the basics techniques and information needed for a sexton. Mr Izat then founded his company, R8 Services and started his journey. He would frequent Leah Flower shop to buy the necessary flowers for graves.
Of course, other companies help maintain cemeteries. The family members of the grave would pay the company to help them clean and maintain the grave. However, not many sextons were keen to be interviewed by us. They did not want to share any information with us and were wary.
HIDDEN PATHS AND ROADS: In the Chinese Cemetery, a sexton works alone to trim the overgrown grass. PHOTO BY AW YONG MING MIN
However, one of the sextons who worked there were open in talking about his experience of the job. However, he requested not to reveal his personal details and company. “Usually only when the sun is hot, the other problems I’m all ok. Back in China, in the countryside, this kind of environment (here at SG) is not hard at all. In fact, I’ll count myself lucky,” said Mr Li, which was his alias. He works every day from 7.45 am to 7 pm.
The middle-aged man has been in Singapore for three years and has been helping to maintain graves for one year. When asked about his thoughts of the job, Mr Li said that though he feels obligated to clean tombstones, he could only clean those who paid the company. “If I clean all the graves in the graveyard then there’s no point, and my boss wouldn’t be happy,” he added.
Is the culture of sextons declining?
While younger people such as Mr Izat are working as sextons, the majority of them were those in their late middle ages. So, are there any youths who are interested in this line of business? Mr Izat explains to us while cleaning up a grave that the public does not reject the idea of sextons. Those who knew what he did were shocked at first but were proud of him. “Because to tell the truth, none of the youngsters wants to do the job because there’s no prospect and no stable income,” Mr Izat said. His family supports what he does, and he is proud of what he does.
Mr Izat plans to continue working as a sexton.
“I don’t earn as much as I do during the safety line, but it’s ok because if our generation doesn’t take over, how are people going to prolong the services for funerals? So I’m taking over the legacy of old-timers here,” he added.
The culture of sextons has been steadily disappearing with the lack of new blood entering the industry. However, it seems that there would be an additional threat that could potentially increase the rate of disappearance of the cemetery culture.
Increasing death rates in Singapore
A shockingly high increase in percentage has been seen over the decade. According to the Department of Statistics Singapore, there has been an increase of 20% in deaths from 2007 to 2019. This means that the need for burial grounds and services are needed even more. In 2019, there have been 21,446 deaths recorded. Would this number increase this year, especially with COVID-19? Does Singapore even have enough burial grounds?
The exhumations of graves in Singapore
It was announced by the National Environment Agency (NEA) in September back in 2017 that 45,000 Chinese graves dated between 1955 and 1999 in Choa Chu Kang Cemetery were to be exhumed for the expansion of the Tengah Airbase, with 12,600 burials from the exhumation program still unclaimed as of June this year.
LOST HISTORY: Dozens of construction vehicles carry out the exhumation programme in Choa Chu Kang Cemetery. PHOTO BY AW YONG MING MIN
Along with the exhumation programs in Choa Chu Kang cemetery, is the coordinated program by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), with more than 3000 graves out of nearly 100,000 graves being exhumed to make way for road constructions to be built and developed, the entire cemetery scheduled to be cleared by 2030 to make way for new estates.
There has since been a vocal campaign made opposing the exhumation program in Bukit Brown cemetery, with campaigners striving to save the ancient cemetery, which housed hundreds of early Chinese immigrants, impressively surviving through the wear and tear of World War 2 and the Japanese occupation.
However, despite some worrying about the preservation of cemetery culture and its possible disappearance from Singapore, Mr Izat is not worried about the disappearance of the culture of both cemeteries and sextons in Singapore. “Muslims believe that when we pass on, we need to be buried by hook or by crook, there is no other way like burning because it is clearly stated in the Quran, so I don’t think graves will be gone,” he said.
Over the years, many cemeteries have been eroded from history as they were exhumed to free up land for buildings. It is tragic to think that those cemeteries would only remain as records in history. The Japanese Cemetery Park, however, eluded that fate.
Memories of the past set in stone
RELAXING ATMOSPHERE: The public park opens from 8 am to 6 pm every day from 22 Chuan Hoe Ave, Singapore 549854. PHOTO BY AW YONG MING MIN
Established in 1891 by three Japanese brothel keepers originally for Japanese prostitutes, the Japanese Cemetery Park had served the burial needs of Japanese residents in Singapore, with the park measuring to be 30,000 square meters with an estimation of 910 tombs.
The cemetery houses a wide variety of Japanese, from businessmen, prostitutes, merchants to soldiers killed in World War Two. However, it has since been closed for burials in 1973, followed up by it being declared a memorial park by the government in 1987 for tourists as a heritage site as well as a nature park.
Today, it has been transformed into a serene and peaceful park open for tourists to walk around in, as flowers blossom around archways as paths around the cemetery. Thankfully, this beautiful place would not disappear from our landscape.
One of such tourists was Misty, who came along with her friend to tour the many “beautiful” heritage sites of Singapore. “So during this time that you cannot travel, so I think it’s just nice to appreciate what we have here in Singapore of what we can see which is really a lot of places,” she says, mentioning how they found this park while searching online for places to visit. She also adds how interesting it was to see beautiful places in Singapore, and she does it during her day-offs.
SELFIE TIME: Tourists visit the Instagrammable park for selfies as it is filled with many arching pink flowers. PHOTO BY AW YONG MING MIN
Similarly with how others accepted Mr Izat’s job, Misty and her friend did not hold any negative views on the job. “It’s a very decent job. I mean not everyone would do it”, she says. “Regardless of what perception, how much you get paid or whatever tasks you do – as long as you work for a living, and you earn money the good way, there’s nothing wrong with that. They will have my respect,” adding on while expressing her appreciation for sextons who work to preserve such heritage sites.
Passing the torch
With youths seemingly having no interest in even the funeral and burial services, much less the job of a sexton, the culture surrounding this profession may be lost to the ages. As Francis Bacon, an English philosopher, once said: "It is as natural to die as it is to be born". Suppose there are no sextons around, who would be the one to look after our graves. Thankfully, with people such as Mr Izat and Mr Li helping to spread the culture and awareness of sextons, it can live on with the passing of the torch from one generation to the other.
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