Malaysian bus drivers ....

Bus accidents are in the news again. When going downhill on the Genting Sempah road, a bus carrying some 40 odd passengers became out of control, hit the divider, and overturned several times. Eight people died while the bus driver escaped with broken bones. It was later learnt that the bus driver had no valid driving license and that he had complained that the brakes were ineffective. Now, how many times have I heard of this - bus drivers complaining about brake failures when going downhill.

It looks as though the bus driver had no inkling on the braking system of modern buses operating on compressed air. Air was kept under pressure in an air reservoir. Stepping on the brake pedal to actuate braking releases air from the reservoir. Frequent stepping on the brake pedal resulted in a lot more air was released than air was being compressed and diverted into the air reservoir. The air in the reservoir became insufficiently compressed and the braking system could never attain its operating pressure, causing the braking system to become ineffective.

The road to Genting is winding and, on many stretches, very, very steep. I used to drive up there during those days when the road was a single carriageway and its surface was premixed with slippery limestone rather than rough granite. One had to be extra careful when going downhill, using the lower gears to retard the car instead of driving on the 4th gear and using the brakes to retard the car. It was more dangerous then than now when the road is dual carriageway with dividers. Even on the rare occasion that I went to Genting on the new road, going downhill in my car, I had to be very, very careful.

But the bus driver seemed to be casual about carrying some 40 odd passengers and not having a valid driving license. I doubt whether he personally inspected the bus before he took it up to Genting. Just because he had driven the bus on level roads does not mean that the bus can perform as well as when going uphill or downhill on steep and winding road such as the one to Genting. And because of the driver's negligence, 7 people died for nothing. There have been many accidents on the Genting road for all I can remember since the casino was built there, not to mention many fatal incidents caused by hill slope collapse.

In order to prevent fatal accidents of this nature, the authorities should conduct the following:-

• only allow suitable buses to go to Genting in terms of age, design, power and so on
• install check points to check on bus drivers ferrying passengers to and from Genting. Drivers who do not comply with JPJ or Police requirements should be stopped from driving buses to Genting or be turned away to go back where they came from
• blacklist buses, or drivers, or even the bus operators from using their buses to Genting

Update 01/11/10: As more was known about the accident, the local media reported that the bus driver, at the time of the accident, was driving with one hand because his other hand could not be used as it had been injured in an accident before. The JPJ also stated that there was no record of the bus driver having had a driving license before and that the bus operator also expressed shock when he was told that his driver had ever had a valid driving license.

Gold ...

The following are bits of information I got from the internet. The information are not in any particular order for the time being. I 'll try to get into some semblance of order once I get more information on gold in Malaysia.

[Gold: Au, Atomic Weight 196.967, Atomic Number 79, Specific Gravity 19.3 at 20 degrees C, Melting Point 1,064.43 degrees C, Boiling Point 2,857 degrees C . Not subject to oxidation, hence always retaining its "gold colour", extremely malleable and ductile, excellent conductor of electricity, used mostly in ornaments, gold coins, gold ingots in reserves, most gold came from Witwaterstrand in South Africa. Wikipedia says that 165,000 tonnes of gold have been mined since human history up to 2009. Unit of sales is in troy ounces or in grams. Unlike Silver, gold is insoluble in nitric acid; however, it dissolves in a mixture of acids forming chloroauric acid; it forms an amalgam with mercury but does not react with it]

The total amount of raw gold produced in 2003 is 4,739 kilograms. The state of Pahang in Malaysia produced 99% of the raw gold in Malaysia. The number of mines are 5 in Pahang, 2 in Kelantan and 1 in Trengganu. The number of workers employed was 836. Mind you, these are statistics in way back in 2003.

There's a gold mine in Penjom, Lipis District in Pahang that produces a 100,000 oz of gold per year [MBendi]

Type of gold coins in the market and prices in USD per troy oz.

Krugerrand. - 1,374 to 1,415; purity 99.99 %

Canadian Gold Maple Leaf - 1, 380 to 1,415; purity 99.999 %

American Gold Eagle Bullion - 1,392 to 1,475; purity 99.99 %

Vienna Philharmonic Gold Coins - 1,394 to 1,408; purity 99.99 %

American Buffalo Gold Coins - 1,400 to 1,750; purity 99.99 %

The prices are quoted by several gold dealers.

National Debt ...

The quite recent Government audit states that the national debt of RM 362.39 billion is 53.7% of the GDP which meant that the GDP was RM 675 billion. For a small country like Malaysia, a GDP of RM 675 billion is quite large. The Auditor - General said that this was the first time that the national debt exceeded 50 %.

What does Malaysia's national debt comprise ? To me, I suppose, lt's made up of what the government owes the banks, the EPF, and other lending institutions plus what it owes from the foreign institutions such as the IMF or the World Bank. Credits from anyone can be included in the national debt. All of them constitute the national debt. The national debt can be long or short term. The long term debt, I suppose, is debt that the government has to repay for a duration of within say 5 years and the short term is for say within a year. Thus the payment of the contract job you did for the government is a short term debt that it incurred for say 60 days or 90 days.

Normally, developing countries are the ones that have national debts out of proportion to their GDP or what they have in their reserves. A developing country that needs to build a road say has no or inadequate funds to start and complete the road project which may run into the millions of their money. For this, it needs quick cash to call for tenders, identify the contractor or several contractors and spend the money to pay its contractors. Its borrowing from anybody - a bank or several banks, domestic or foreign, lending institution, IMF or World Bank - constitutes the country's national debt. This kind of debt is long term since it takes time to build the road, to collect money to gradually repay the loan. How the loan is paid, by way of cash or commodity, depends on prior understanding between the borrower and the lender.