Foreign guards are better, say residents

PETALING JAYA: Neighbourhoods here regard foreign security guards as more hardworking and better performers at their jobs than locals.

Bandar Utama residents, who have been employing security guards for the past 14 years and seen local guards come and go, prefer the services of foreigners.

Bandar Utama residents' association (RA) chairman Lim See Meng said the foreign guards were “definitely more hardworking” when compared with locals.

“They come here to earn as much as they can so that they can send money back to their families,” he said, adding that Malaysian guards did not last long on the job because of the tough working conditions.

“It's probably different if they are guarding offices or shopping malls. Guarding a housing area means you have to stand under the hot sun and in the rain,” he said.

Because of this, he said he even “closes one eye” whenever the security firm places an illegal guard in the area temporarily.

“The onus is on the security company to ensure that their guards have the right papers. At our level, we don't really check.

“As long as they perform their duties, it's OK with us,” he said.

Ravindran Raman Kutty, a founding member of the Bandar Sri Damansara Residents' Association and its former chairman, agreed that security firms did not always vet their guards properly.

He recalled that one firm presented a line-up of guards to the RA but when members ran background checks on the guards on the list, they found that several of the guards had previous convictions.

“The RAs must play an extra vigilant role when hiring security companies because they can put lives at risk,” he said.

He said he was pleased with the current group of security guards from Sabah and Sarawak who get salaries of between RM1,100 and RM1,200.

Ravindran, who has been involved in the RA for the past 18 years, said other associations should also be willing to pay more for good guards.

Not necessarily.