Wednesday, January 09, 2019

Why record particulars of visitors to commercial buildings?

I share this example of another wasteful activity that has been carried out for years.

A visitor to a commercial building has to register with the security post and collect a pass to enter the building. The visitor has often to deposit the NRIC card with the post and has to collect back the card after the visit.

What is the purpose of this registration?

If it is security to stop terrorism, it is better to get the security guard to check the bags to see if any bombs are being carried.

Why are they wasting their time to scan and record the particulars of the visitors?

I have heard of a ridiculous reason being given - in case of a fire, they will know who are in the building. Really? How stupid can people be? How often do we have a fire? In case of a fire, will the record be of any use?

Another ridiculous reason was that it was necessary during the SARS episode to trace the people who visited a particular building, in case there was an episode of SARS. Are these people aware that SARS has disappeared for more than a decade?

A third ridiculous reason is that the government wants to track the movement of people. I reject this explanation. The government already has a better means of tracking a person's movement using the GPS of his smart phone. They do not need to have this inefficient and costly means.

Why are we spending so much money over a useless activity?

I come back to the threat of terrorism. If this is a real threat, the target is not a commercial building.

A better target for terrorists is the shopping mall or MRT station. There are more people who can be injured or killed at these other places.

Some commercial buildings may need a high level of security, if it houses an important government minister or very rich person. But these are special buildings. They are not commercial buildings that are used by multiple organizations.

It is not only the time wasted for the security guards to record the particulars that cannot be of any use to anybody.

What about the time wasted by the visitors to queue and get their particulars scanned and to retrieve their NRIC cards that were held on hostage?

Let us get rid of this useless activity and save a lot of wasted time and manpower.

More important, let us get rid of the culture of non-thinking acceptance of non-sensensical requirements passed down by non-thinking bureaucrats and ministers who do not care.

Tan Kin Lian

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