In many countries, burial needs of its own people usually form the subject of their local planning. Local authorities make provisions on where burial grounds and cemeteries are to be located, and what type of burial arrangement should be provided or permitted, whether burial ground or columbarium building to store cremated remains. Apart from demographics and mortality rate of its own nation, governments usually take into consideration availability of land in order to make such planning.

As we can see in many developed nations, burial grounds offered by private memorial parks are often priced highly as it is commonly believed that land is a limited resource and supply is scarce. Bearing in mind that columbarium building is a more efficient use of land, the community is naturally pushed towards opting for more affordable urn compartment as final resting place. For places where land is extremely limited such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, even the right of use of an urn compartment in high rise columbarium building could cost a bomb and some may even have a long waiting list before one is available.

Burial products such as urn compartments and burial plots for non-Muslims, whether in public cemeteries or private memorial parks in Malaysia, command a good secondary market where resale or transfer is permitted. Some consumers actually believe in not just purchasing ahead of death to hedge against inflation, but “investing” in burial plots or premium urn compartments to earn the profits after a resale or subsequent transfer to secondhand buyers. Such purchasers are usually termed “pre-need” purchasers who do not use the burial product within the immediate future, say in next 6 months.

Foreigner – to bury or not to bury?

In Malaysia, when death occurs, families get to apply for a burial permit from the local authority to secure the cremation and burial ground. The rule of thumb is issuance of burial permit by the local authority for a demised foreigner would mean that such foreigner is permitted to be buried in Malaysia. A clear example is foreign workers died of COVID-19 while staying in Malaysia have been permitted to bury here as body repatriation is extremely challenging not just due to control of infectious disease but also due to border closure.

On the contrary, we have yet to see the government expressly imposing regulatory controls on foreigners acquiring right to use burial ground or urn compartment, which could become a pertinent issue in pre-need market before burial permit is issued. The author has been asked many times whether sales of right to use burial grounds or urn compartments to foreigners should then be deemed as freely permissible. It is believed that there is no straightforward answer to this.

In selling rights to use burial ground or urn compartment to foreigners, private memorial parks are urged to balance the need to sell and generate good revenue, against the greater social responsibility of not depriving the local community of much deserved burial grounds due to prices being driven very high or supply is limited. It would not be logical that a particular memorial park in Malaysia becomes a cemetery predominantly buried with foreigners from say Hong Kong or Singapore.

Precautionary measures

The author would therefore advise that some precautionary measures be adopted by private memorial parks who intend to sell right of use of their burial products to foreigners. Firstly, foreigners should be informed of the need of procuring the burial permit from local authority before any demised foreigner can be accepted to be buried in Malaysia. Local authority may refuse to issue burial permit and eventually defeating the intention of the foreigner to use such burial ground or urn compartment at a later date.

Secondly, to prevent speculative purchasers with sole intention to en bloc purchase and subsequently resell at a higher price, the author would advise private memorial parks to adopt clear measures to identify and highlight or even prevent repeat foreign purchasers who buy en bloc at one point in time, or foreign purchasers who repeatedly or acting in concert to purchase multiple burial products over a period of time. Imposing condition that any resale or transfer is subject to prior consent of the management company is an effective way to see who the new purchasers would be.

Thirdly, the author advises private memorial parks to adopt clear policy and setting reasonable conditions in allowing sales to foreigners. Genuine foreign purchasers and users of burial products that should be allowed include foreign children (in migration cases) buying for their Malaysian parents’ use, demised foreign children of Malaysian parents, or foreign spouses of Malaysian who have a legal right to remain in Malaysia.

For foreign workers or expatriates or their family members who pass away in Malaysia, their employers or families could be granted a right to use urn compartment until such time when repatriation of the urns to return to their country of origin is done. Ground burial should not be encouraged as exhumation in short time period is proven to be hazardous and may not be permitted by local authority.

To be a responsible citizen of the Earth, private memorial parks should conduct its business which largely involves irreversible exploitation of land in a responsible manner, for the betterment of our future generations. Sustainability of private memorial parks depends not merely in creating an economically sustainable business venture, but also in developing an environmentally sustainable as well as socially responsible park.