A few months ago my township manager terminated the services of an armed guard in the guarded and gated community that I stay in.
The sudden departure of the armed sentry at the main guardhouse after more than 10 years caused quite a stir among the community, comprising close to 1,000 households.
The residents must have lost their sense of security even though they continued to be served by 30 guards rounding the housing estate with guard dogs and manning a double boom gate system.
This is further reinforced with state-of-the-art cameras lined throughout the security fencing under the watchful eyes of guards over dozens of monitors housed in a purpose built control room.
In fact, our security is already so strict that our township has gained a reputation of taxis and grab cars drivers refusing to come into our development to pick up passengers during peak hours.
Renovators have to go through a thorough check of their car boot every time they leave the premises. On one occasion, one of them was so annoyed with the vigilant check that he got into a row with the guards.
Even visiting friends and relatives have to get out of their cars, rain or shine, to register if the residents failed to provide them with a QR code to enter.
“Apa lagi mahu ? “ ( what else you want ? )many would have asked
Yet, at a cost of more than RM 100,000 per year for just one armed guard, the residents never flinched an eyelid when they voted to reinstate the services of the armed sentry, whose duty is to sit in a prominent position in front of the guardhouse from 8 pm to 8 am.
It doesn’t matter to the residents if he was caught sleeping one night. Nor was it important if he doesn’t make his rounds. In fact, I don’t even know if the guard still know how to fire a shot . All I know is that the residents put their full trust that a licensed armed guard would possess all the skills and qualifications. And therefore, there is no necessity to worry.
It doesn’t matter if the guard could be overpowered by robbers and his firearms snatched away. It doesn’t matter if a life is lost due to a misfire in the event of a scuffle. It doesn’t matter if the guard may be provoked on a bad day and abuse the use of his firearms. It also doesn’t matter if the developer with decades of experience managing dozens of townships had taken a stand to stop all armed guard services in all their developments
Such was the thinking behind the minds of 140 residents who voted in a residents’ poll to reinstate the services of the armed sentry.
But thank goodness we have another 110 sensible residents who thought otherwise and voted against the reinstatement.
However a poll in a democratic society will probably see the simple majority having it their way.
I suppose very soon, the residents will once again get back their false sense of comfort that an armed guard will be able to protect them against potential thieves and robbers.
Such paranoia thinking which annuls acumen and levelheadedness is quite prevalent, especially among the younger generations.
I remember keeping a baseball bat in my car during my younger days, believing that it can be used to defend myself in any eventuality.
I later realised that it gave me more reason to be aggressive than to be defensive. When confronted with an incident , the immediate thought was that I had a weapon in hand.
A weapon can work for us as much as it can work against us, more so a firearm.
It is perhaps high time that the authorities put a stop to property developers hiring arm guards for their guarded and gated development . For all intent and purposes, it is giving house buyers a false sense of security.
Vincent Lim is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.