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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Guards’ pay offers no security


Security guards do little more than inspire a false sense of security, though they could certainly do more if they were adequately paid
COMMENT
Recently, a woman was robbed outside her Kelana Jaya condominium as security guards there looked on.
While there was some public outcry against the guards (and their management), allow me to say that I wasn’t the least bit surprised that this sort of thing happened.
No, I did not find it shocking that a few people in uniform did not help a woman in her time of need.
In fact, I would hardly find it surprising if a gang of armed robbers, in a gated community, were to jump into a house and wipe the place clean, with security guards standing by.
Most robbers, bandits, or what-have-you don’t fear security guards, especially when they come in the ones and twos.
They fear a large crowd, because a crowd will beat the living daylights out of snatch thief if there is a chance.
They also fear the cops because, well, if you aren’t afraid of the Malaysian police, then something is very wrong with you.
But security guards in this country can’t be expected to stop crime. Now this is not a claim that employed guards are useless. Far from it.
There are guards, who in the line of duty have stopped criminals from robbing their employers, or assaulting the people they’ve been told to protect.
But you can’t expect someone to stand up against a gunman or a man with a machete when you pay them a pittance every month.
Pathetic wages
Many security companies here seem to think that you can grab any number of foreigners (or locals), slap a uniform on them, pay them RM500 a month and call them a security guard.
And we, the public, seem to expect them to fulfill their role and more, even if we don’t believe in paying them well.
“I get about RM600 a month,” a condominium security guard told me recently. “If I work overtime, maybe 12 hours a day, and burn my only day-off every month, I might get more than RM1,000.”
When the urban poverty rate is set at RM3,000 a household per month, a security guard’s wage these days is not only pathetic, it is also insulting.
Most private security guards in the country are given the enormous responsibility of making sure that others get a good night’s sleep.
The same can probably be said of the police (especially the rank-and-file), who are already on a tight government leash and have to take abuse from a public that is either suspicious of or hates them.
And they have it worse than private security guards; they have to literally lay down their lives so that most of us can live, work and play in peace.
We are a rich country, and we have no problem paying for quality. Many of us don’t mind paying a little extra for good food, well-made clothes and quality service.
So how come we find it so difficult to give our security forces (private and government) a respectable living wage?
Even with the basic federal-set RM900 minimum wage on the way, many private companies will probably be dragging their feet in coming up with a decent salary for security guards.
If we don’t respect our guards by paying their rightful dues, how can we expect them to bother about keeping us safe?

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