Last thursday on the 21 November 2013, our neighbourhood security watch had the misfortune of being raided by the enforcement team from the Home Ministry and three of the guards on duty were detained because their papers were not in order. Their permits were meant for work in the factory but they were utilised to become security guards and thus they faced deportation and the security service provider would be slapped with a compound for the offence.
Although the other guards had their permits in order but they refused to continue the watch in protest to the security provider for not looking after their welfare. Thus our residents association security arrangement went into disarray due to their absence. By friday evening the committee had an emergency meeting to map out the course of action to plug the security lapse and a quick decision was taken to ask the committee members and volunteers to take turns to be on the security watch. It was indeed a test on the association how to deal with a crisis. Our President and the other members of the committee managed to come around and handle the crisis effectively. The present security provider is simply unable to provide the replacements because most of the guards are from Nepal and they were afraid that they would be detained as they were unsure whether their papers are genuine.
By now we have suspended the service of the provider for being unable to find replacements and temporary guards have been put in place to take over manning the security watch round the clock. On monday night of 25 November the committee met with the management of the company which is supplying us the temporary guards and negotiated for their continuation on a monthly basis until the association finalise its decision on the security provider.
It is a small village in the kecamatan of Tambusai, Kabupaten Rokan Hulu in the Province of Riau, Sumatra. During the Padri Wars of 1830's , Tuanku Tambusai (aka known as Fakeh Hj Muhammad Salleh ) fought the Dutch forces together with Imam Bonjol and Tuanku Rao in West Sumatra and in Northern Sumatra .The last defence was in Benteng 7 Lapis,Daludalu which fell in 1838. He escaped capture and came to Malaya. He was buried in Rasah in 1882.
6 comments:
Do we know what we are doing? With Indoonesia we agreed to put a heavy minimum salary plus huge agency fees. Most Malaysians are finding it hard to find legitimate helpers. And yet we have by hundreds of thousand of illegal because they have no job in their countries. And our own Malays do not seem to get the minimum salaries we promise the Indonesians. What are we tryingg to do - stop employing immigrants by making it expensive form our peple to employ them at reasonable wages?And we landed with uncontrolled influx of them illegally - plus the gansters, robbers and murderers!
The situation is a mess and almost everything is in a mess - from policy to implementation and supervision. Sadly we, the people at large, are to swallow the ill consequences. In a rtemote way I look at these illegal immigrants with some of the sympathy I have for the street beggers. Situation dictates their acts and they often have no easier alternative. Water on the floor will naturally find the lowest part and out through whichever cracks and outlets.
Dear Pakcik,
Our overdependence on cheap labour from foreigners are coming to an end.Thus we are forced by their govts to increase their wages and hold us to ransom. We are partly to blame because we thank menial work are only for migrant workers, thus pampering our people by giving the signal that those who perform such jobs are being looked down as cheap skates. The problem we face now is largely due to our flip flop policy on foreign workers, so much so the enforcement has become a nightmare.
Dear Hal,
All these continuing problems are directly as a result of whims of little Napoleons on the ground.
As to Maids:
However much legislative changes or enforcements are done it will only impact on certain individuals. No one in authority is going to bother when emotional matters are the underlying reasons.
As to Workers:
It is fluid. Reasons given for the wrongs that occur are not the real reasons. It is only to pander to the authorities to cover up for their shady activities So wrong solutions will not work to correct the ills.
Hank
Dear Hank,
We have actually repeated what the British did by importing migrant labour to work in the tin mines and rubber estates. The scenario is being repeated but of a different era and this time by players who put their personal interest above the national interest. At least the colonials had a policy and implemented it to the hilt, much to our disadvantage when over time they were granted citizenship. It is the same story all over again but the landscape had changed and the common denominator is fattening the pockets of unscrupluous people.
Dear Pakcik,
I must apologise for not publishing one of your comments due to an inadvertent oversight. Your description of the "mess" is very apt. It was the result of a "Flip-flop" decision involving foreign workers which makes a lot of people suffer as well as cash in the situation, from agents to enforcement personnel.
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