Think Singapore is just a nation of people working typical corporate jobs? Introducing Stomp’s new original series, Don’t Try This At Work, where we spotlight individuals with risky, exciting, unconventional and even downright terrifying jobs.
From cleaning up after death to handling bees by hand, the series offers a behind-the-scenes look at occupations most people would never dare to try — and the people who do them every single day.
Muhammad Amir, 34, has a serious, almost clinical set-up in front of him: a foldable metal bed, an assortment of small items, and white shrouds, as if preparing for a burial.
The mood in his Woodlands flat, however, is warm. Amir, his wife, and nephew, usher Stomp journalists in for an interview and an educational demonstration of what he does daily as a Muslim undertaker, better known among the Malay community as ‘pengurus jenazah’.
“Alamak, nervous,” he remarks sheepishly at various points in his interview — though it’s clear he has no reason to be.
Once the demonstration begins, he confidently explains the purpose of each item laid out on the metal bed: sheets of white cloth, kain batik lepas (a batik cloth), camphor, cotton, perfume and sandalwood powder.
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Items needed to help Mr Amir prepare a body for burial.
STOMP PHOTO: CHERRY TAN
With his nephew Saiful Amir standing in for a dead body — which led to some good-humoured chuckling between our party of six — Amir explains, step-by-step, the process of bathing the body and preparing it for burial with dignity.
He does this methodically, with tremendous calm, that it’s almost hard to believe he’s only six years into this role.
A fateful introduction to his calling
His interest in the job was piqued almost a decade ago, when his grandmother died in 2017.
Then 23 years of age, he observed the imam leading family members in the prayers and burial process with awe — and felt a calling.
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