Prime Minister of Malaysia Statistics

Data from here
Statistics as at 7 March 2020

1. There have been 8 Prime Ministers of Malaya / Malaysia since 1957
2. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the 4th and 7th PM
3. 3 have passed away, 4 are still alive
4. Tun Razak died age 53, the shortest lifespan. Tun Mahathir is the oldest PM, currently 94.
5. Tun Razak served the shortest reign, 1,940 days. Tun Mahathir served a total of 8,803 days. Tun Mahathir second term was the shortest at 661 days
6. Tun Razak was the youngest PM at 48. Tan Sri Muhyiddin is the oldest at 72. 
7. Tunku Abdul Rahman lived for another 20 years after stepping down. Tun Hussein lived another 9 years. Tun Razak died in office.

Data from here

Data from here

Data from here

Proton X70 A 45 day 3,450km review

Proton X70

A review

Sun 10 Feb 2019

We took delivery of our X70 on 27 Dec 2018.

After forty five days it has been driven driven about 3,450 kms. That is an average of 78km/day.

The X70 replaced our Volvo XC60. (2012 to 2018 : 127.3k kms) Frustration with the monopolistic and arrogant attitudes of official Volvo dealers led us to consider the X70. Thank you to Chairman of Proton who put us on the list to be one of the early birds. We have the red , highest specs ,version. I believe some of the features we describe below may not feature in the other models.

In summary, it has been a great ride. The X70 exceeds expectations. It is great value. It exudes luxury. It has gadgets and surprises. So, it is a Chinese car. Well, they make iphones as well.

My first car was a proton, a new Saga Knight in 1989. We never owned another proton after that. Prior to the XC60, we had an XC90 (2004-2012: 143.7k kms). So this review will make comparisons to both these cars.

Random comments

• The red colour is nice. As one of the first few on the road, there was a lot of interest in the car
• We gave lots of friends rides. The “hi Proton” , talk to me, Siri feature, impresses most people. It doesn't always understand what we say and gets things wrong often, but it's a cool gimmick and does work most times
• The leather interior is luxurious. Well stitched and crafted, it is a pleasure to drive
• The front seats are designed for Asian sized bodies, and probably smaller than European standards
• Petrol consumption over the entire 3,450 kms averages out at 11.2 l/100km. This is 8.92 km/l . This works out to 25.2 mpg (imperial) (21.0 mpg (US))
• This was a mix of urban silly KL traffic, a few trips to klia and a few outstation trips on tollways
• I would estimate a 20% to 25% higher mileage on highway compared to city driving. This compares with the Volvos where highway mileage is about double city mileage.
• A detailed summary is here
• The car quickly became a family favourite, convincing even my boss, who was, initially, not very interested in a proton.
• The adaptive cruise control (ACC) works well.
• The controls are simple and intuitive
• The dashboard indications and graphical warnings are good
• Being used to the XC60 ACC, there is one major difference.
• In slow traffic, when the speed gets to about 5 km/h the ACC asks you to take over. It then passes control back to you.
• In the XC60, the ACC stops in traffic jams and starts again when the car in front moves.
• Assuming it worked the same, we quite shocked when the ACC quits.
• As we suffer interminable traffic jams in KL, it would be nice if the ACC could adopt the XC60 handling of stop start traffic.
• If you have never used ACC, this will not mean much to you.
• The ACC on the highway and moving traffic works fine
• The handbrake comes on automatically. Releasing it is touch of a switch. Cool
• Lane departure warning is nice. It is annoying sometimes but it shows how we tend to swerve around the road. It will produce better drivers.
• The sunroof is huge. The sunscreen is bigger. The controls are easily accessible. This is the best command to impress guests to show how “hi proton” , works
• The car has its own SIM card and 1GB per month data. We get this for 5 years, I presume after that a monthly fee will be payable. So the car can produce its own WiFi hot-spot. It can also use your own WiFi as an alternative. By having connectivity, the car has traffic information in the inbuilt Baidu GPS navigation system and seeks YouTube when searching for songs
• In the first few days drives , there seemed to be a lull or slow pick up at slow speeds. If you slow down to turn a corner, it is as if the transmission only went down to third gear and not second or first. If you came to a complete stop , this did not occur. However later this problem seems to have gone.
• There is no CD player
• The aircon works well. There is an ioniser but i am not sure how it works or whether it really makes any difference.
• The back tail gate is manual. No automatic up and down. After rain, water tends to collect in certain parts and splashes slightly when you open the tailgate.
• There is a tyre pressure management system that tells the temperature and current air pressure of each tyre.
• The digital console is touchscreen. Fat fingers can be a small problem. It smudges with our dirty and greasy fingers. Need a small spectacle or phone cloth to clean regularly.
• There is an auto hold function that works only once you wear your seatbelt. At any stop, while still in D, the car has a hold so you do not need to keep your feet on the brake. This takes some getting used to. A useful feature.
• The inbuilt Baidu navigation system is useful. If you like waze, you will probably default back to it. The routes can be quite different sometimes. The navigation tends to say too much.
• In the back seat there is an armrest that comes down. It only has two small cup holders. It seems to have been designed for cool aesthetics, nice to look at, but has no ability to store other stuff. The Volvos do better.
• There ia an app that you can install on your phone
• You can see the location of the car
• You can see the status of doors and boot and control like a remote control
• It records the route of every single journey
• The bluetooth to mobile phone was loud and clear and stable
• The reverse 360 camera is very high resolution
• It also comes on when you are near to an object or a motorcycle or car comes too close
• The Blind spot information BLIS indicator is small. It works but you don’t get much of a warning
• The safety AEB and FCW have not been tested, thankfully
• There is a very cool feature when you open the two front doors in the dark. There is an illuminated Proton logo projected onto the ground. Cool for guests.
• There is a window ventilation mode. Upon locking the car, it will lower all 4 windows a few cm to allow for air ventilation. This lets in mosquitoes and bugs if left overnight. I am not sure if it closes automatically, if there is rain.
• There are boss controls so that the driver or rear passenger can move the front passenger seat. Neat
• The media can save online songs as favourites, but they disappeared after an OS update
• There was one over the air OTA software update
• This was done during driving and seemed to look after itself
• New and changed options and features appeared after the update
• So one does not need visits to the car doctor to upgrade
• Favourited songs were lost
• On Fri 8 Feb, we could not open the doors remotely. Using key entry, the battery was completely dead.
• A call to the sales person who delivered the car said not to jumpstart, as it required a battery starter some thing or other
• We called the phone number on the sticker on the screen.
• Proton people turned up at the house within thirty minutes
• They restarted with their battery rescue pack
• They said that it was due to loose cables
• They left without payment
• This happened at 3,430kms.
• The car had been idle and not started for about 60 hours during the New year break
• There were several technicians that called
• We must have been one of the first X70 to get a flat battery
• Congratulations on the efficient, prompt and attentive free rescue.
• We arranged a loan from Maybank for 100k for 3 years
• This was done very fast and efficiently
• Well done, Maybank
• Summary
• It is a nice car
• It is great value
• It is a fun ride

• You can follow the progress here

Fuel Summary

uncle yai turning vases of Qianlong

A new perspective

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New perspective

Virtual tour generated by Panotour - http://www.geosenseuav.com.my/360sample/PJU14

Done by Geosense

lift off

touch down

The team

#MH370, a possible scenario

Today, CNN is reporting that Chinese news services are claiming that a Chinese vessel has recorded a ping of 37.5 kHZ, the frequency emitted by a black box.

The location has been given as 25 S, 101 East.

If so, this is approximately 3000 to 3100 kms south of KUL.

This is almost due south of Kuala Lumpur.

Why is it there?

Here is my suggestion.

Something happen which caused the pilot to turn around and head back to KUL.

The cause of the turn back is due to some emergency. The cause of this emergency could be an accident  (eg fire) or suicidal pilot or hijack, the various scenarios proposed to date.

At some point, someone attempted to key in the coordinates for KUL (KLIA airport). These are 2.745N and 101.709E.

However due to the circumstances on board the Latitude coordinate was keyed in as 27.45 S instead. The emergency caused the person to make the error.

At some point, there is nobody controlling the aircraft and if flies on its own towards the erroneous waypoint.

The flight ends in the 25S 101E area now being searched.

I hope this ping turns out to be true.

Distance calculator from http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html

Tsunami earthquakes tides and swings

A tsunami is a term given by the Japanese to describe the physical effects of waves formed after an earthquake. They are also called tidal waves.
Not all earthquakes produce tsunami.
The earthquake is the cause and the tsunami is the effect.

In democratic elections, victory and failure, the increase and decrease of seats won, can be attributed to swings in voting patterns by the electorate.
Swings happen all the time. Multiple swings in different directions like tides, can cancel each other. In the same direction they amplify their impact.

The so called Chinese Tsunami in PRU13 is actually a combination of swings. Voters from certain ethnic backgrounds, age cohort, geographic location or other features voted in a similiar direction. The effect was most visible in say Johor and in Gelang Patah. However the effect differs across rural and urban seats and in different parts of the country.
A casual glance of the seats lost or reduction in majorities yesterday indicates that the swing against the ruling BN coalition was highly correlated with the % of Chinese voters. This may be a major cause but further mathematical analysis will show the statistical proof.

The Chinese Tsunami of PRU13 is actually a continuation of the swing from PRU12. In PRU12, there was a swing against Government. The swing was enough to change some state governments. That swing continued in Johor this year. Swings cause seat changes only when the swing exceeds the present majority. In PRU13 the swings were not sufficient to impact East Malaysia. Majorities there have reduced and continued swings in future elections could have significant effects.
Like a tsunami that reaches different places at different times and impacts different places depending upon the geographical conditions present, the election swings of PRU12 and PRU13 has impacted different states differently.

It is easy to blame others for our own failures. Describing a Chinese Tsunami simplifies real underlying issues.
Remember the tsunami is only the effect. The cause is the earthquake. In our election case the earthquake is rakyat dissatisfaction with the Government of the day. Pressures build up and energy is released causing tsunami and voting pattern swings.

#GE13 #PRU13 Estimate the results undi.info

undi.info have published a neat little tool for predicting the outcome of the 5 May 2013 Malaysian General Elections Parliament seats

Based upon your estimates of the % swing for each Group of voters the tool calculates the individual seats which will change hands. They give a guide of 0 to 15% swings.

What is a swing?

A swing represents the level of change between the two parties from one election to the other.

As an example.

Assume 1,000 valid votes in Seat XYZ in 2008.

The BN candidate got 600 votes and the PR candidate got 400 votes. 

The BN candidate has 60% and the PR candidate 40%.

Further assume there were 800 valid votes in 2004 in Seat XYZ.

The BN Candidate got 560 votes and the PR candidate got 240 votes.

The BN candidate has 70% and the PR candidate 30%.

The difference for the BN was an additional 40 votes and the difference for the PR was an additional 160 votes. The BN candidate lost 10% share and the PR candidate gained 10%. The swing is half the loss or the gain which is 5%. When one vote swings the effect is doubled as it is negative on one side and positive on one side.

Assume therefore that in the 2013 elections there are now 1,200 votes. What swings are required for the BN to retain the seat and for the PR to wrest the seat?

To win either candidate requires 601 votes, 50.08% of the 1,200 votes.

So to retain the seat the BN needs 41 more votes than the previous election and the PR needs 201 more votes.

The seat changing swing is (60% - 40%) / 2 = 10%.

So if more than 10% voters switch their votes from BN to PR then the PR candidate will win.

If less than 10% voters switch their votes from BN to PR or if PR votes swing to BN,  the BN candidate will win.

What has been the historical swings?

Swings have ranged from -6.8% to 8% in the General elections from 1964 to 2008.
Note that the swing % of votes will differ from the % seats.
This is due to the differences in the % majorities at each election.

What about 2013?

The undi.info tool requires you to estimate the swing for each group of voters. These groupings have historically swung different ways in past elections. 

If however you assume that all groups will vote uniformly and input the same % in each Group

you will see that the BN only needs a swing towards it of 0.5% to win back a 2/3 majority. The BN can afford a negative swing of 4.5% before it loses government.

This overlooks the fact that there are other factors that make the swings wildly inconsistent across groups, states and seats. 

Other random thoughts.

The votes cast is dependent, upon amongst others:

• seats being contested, (in the past some seats have been won uncontested on nomination day)
• voter turnout , (in some elections voters stay at home, voting with their feet rather than the ballot box)

For instance, in 1974, less people voted than in 1969. They came back in 1978 though! In 2004 there were only 285,044 additional voters than in 1999. In the past 5 elections the higher the additional turnout the the swing against the government was higher.