Beginning this week, The Malaysian Insight will feature ordinary Malaysians who make the country a better place. We begin this series with P. Murugiah.

IN the 1980s, P. Murugiah found himself undertaking a gruesome task – dealing with bodies in shallow graves, which became “animal feed” when they washed up after a downpour.

The former research officer vowed then to serve the Indian community in Penang and, if necessary, from the cradle to the grave.

Families too poor to bury their dead, vagrants, drug addicts are the insurance agent’s “clients”. 

Since 1985, he and a group of friends have collected 542 bodies left unclaimed by their next-of-kin.

“The unclaimed dead were mostly Indians while some were foreigners. Some were vagrants, HIV sufferers and drug addicts disowned by their families, while others were from families too poor to afford proper funerals,” said the 60-year-old.

Dignity for the dead

Murugiah’s charity work began when the late Jelutong MP Karpal Singh highlighted that body parts were scattered at the Batu Lanchang cemetery.

“It was on the Straits Echo’s front page,” he told The Malaysian Insight, recalling how bodies buried in shallow graves would resurface after heavy rain.

“When the bodies surfaced, animals went for them. That was how the body parts were scattered.”

Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) president S.M. Mohamed Idris asked Murugiah, a research officer then, to look into the matter.

“The unclaimed bodies were wrapped in white sheets when they were sent from the hospital to the cemetery. There were no coffins.

“Undertakers were poorly paid and no one supervised the cemetery workers, so they just dug two-feet-deep unmarked graves.”

At that time, Murugiah said, no Indian or Hindu organisation buried unclaimed bodies.

“Other communities and faiths did not have such a problem,” he said.

‘Popular’ service

“Volunteers” needed to bear the cost and find someone to clean the bodies, clothe them, see to the funeral rites, bury or cremate them, and collect the ashes to scatter in the sea,” Murugiah said.

“It was a two-day job on weekdays. We had to use our own money.”

The tasks were unpleasant, challenging and inconvenient but Murugiah never once thought of giving up. He consulted his master, the late Swami Shantanand Saraswathi, a Hindu spiritualist and founder of the Temple of Fine Art, and the free service for the dead began.

“My master told me not many people would be given such an opportunity to serve and help. He guided and showed us the way to do it,” he said.

A Malaysia Hindu Sangam member at the time, he and more than 20 volunteers from the organisation collected unclaimed bodies and gave them a proper send-off.

They cleaned the bodies, dug graves in all weathers, and if they were cremated, the volunteers took turns to collect the ashes to scatter in the sea.

It cost about RM100 to RM150 for a funeral then and Idris paid for the first coffin. Soon, Murugiah and friends were handling more and more cases.

Challenging early days

From the mid-1980s to the 1990s, they handled 20 to 30 dead bodies a month, before the figure went down to about 10 a month from 2000 onwards.

“When we started, we had Kedah cases, too. Penang was receiving medical cases from Kedah and some were poor estate families.

“It was too expensive to take their deceased family members home, so they held the funerals in Penang.”

One of the saddest cases that Murugiah recalls was a four-year-old who died at Penang Hospital from acute malnourishment in 1986.

“The parents were estate workers in Lunas. They were extremely poor. The boy was so hungry, he ate sand.”

Another 1986 case was a Ghanaian technician whose body was in the morgue for 42 days. The man had died in a hotel room while stranded penniless in Penang after a trishaw peddler rode off with his bags containing his flight tickets, US$750 and documents he needed for a new job in New Guinea.

Murugiah said the first year was tough as they were short of funds. They sometimes had 10 bodies a week and had to beg for donations.

“We nearly gave up during the first year. But things improved when news got out about what we were doing and people came to help raise money.”

Great souls in needy times

Several “great souls” and groups – Wong See Chiang, Molly Ho Siew Eng, lawyer Datuk K. Kumarendran, Bodhi Heart Cooperation, and Sathya Sai Baba Centre – have supported the free service since 1986.

“Madam Molly baked cakes and biscuits, sold them door-to-door to raise money for us. Mr Wong calls regularly to check how he can help and stands by to cover funeral costs, while Bodhi Heart started a fund for us,” he said.

Enrico Trading and Jayam Spice Mart donated prayer items; Anitha Saree Centre, Umayal Textiles and Rao Sarees Centre, clothing for the deceased; and Ganapathy Florist, free garlands and flowers.

“There are now people on the waiting list, pledging to sponsor our work.”

The free funerals have been overseen by the Penang Hindu Association (PHA), of which Murugiah is deputy president, for the last five years.

The 15 volunteers now handled fewer cases, Murugiah said, with an average of five a month now, although the funerals cost more.

“Starting last year, the Penang Hindu Endowment Board waived the cremation cost, which is RM500. So we spend about RM800 per funeral now.

“If the crematorium is not available, we burn the body ourselves with firewood, which cost RM400.” The latter pushes the total cost past RM1,000.

Adults would be cremated while children were buried, Murugiah said, according to customs taught by his late master.

The group also reaches out to hospices, orphanages and old folks’ homes. Murugiah and his friends cremated former English and History teacher P.K. Sankunni Nair, a resident of the Silver Jubilee Home for the Aged in March 2016.

Sankunni taught at Chung Ling High School and former Penang chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon was a student.

Good deeds pay off

When Murugiah and his friends first started the service, their families were worried and did not support them.

“We continued anyway and I think all of us are blessed (because of it). We are all well. Our children are successful and wonderful things have happened to our families. 

“It goes back to my master, who opened our eyes to the opportunity God gave us.”

Murugiah, a father of three, said his eldest son has expressed an interest to continue the charity work.

But it’s not only the dead that occupies Murugiah’s time. Through PHA, he also helps poor families with food aid and sick and malnourished children with healthcare.

Aid for poor students include money for bus fares and school expenses, spectacles, hearing aids and scholarships.

For seniors in need, he gives out walking sticks, wheelchairs and nappies.

Murugiah spends his Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Derma Sivasanta free clinic founded by his late master and run under the auspices of the Temple of Fine Arts.

Despite all he has done to help the living and the dead, Murugiah said: “We have not done enough”. – April 2, 2017.