Conjecture vs Fact • Klang Valley MRT

There is a distinct fissure between one who is intellectually dishonest and one who is oblivious. To turn a phrase with undiscerning mathematical vocabulary, you face a toss between a liar and the ill-advised. Say, if you disagree that 5+1+8 amounts to 14, then the crevice between the storyteller and the unwise becomes apparent.

I deal with data and subscribe to the data-information-knowledge construct. Conversely, a reasoned opinion precedes the accrual of knowledge, information and data on any given issue. Data is the basement of the construct, thus conscious deliberation in the realm of conjecture and supposition enhances the job description of the storyteller.

An example of conjecture:-

Datuk Ahmad Maslan, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, was quoted to have said that the Klang Valley has less than 2 kilometers of rail per million residents. He parlayed the number to justify construction of the Klang Valley MRT. Pemandu (The Performance, Management and Delivery unit) compounded the Minister’s supposition when it offered a figure of 15 kilometers per million residents. Neither party offered data or statistics to support their position; hence, there is no issue to discern because conjecture and suppositions are consciously not deliberated upon.

Fact:-

A mathematical calculation of the total kilometer of rail in the Klang Valley is 224.6km. This figure is derived from the lengths of all individual rail networks lines comprising:-

Kelana Jaya Line – 29km

Ampang Line – 27km

KTM Komuter Sentul – Port Klang – 43 km

KTM Komuter Batu Caves – Sentul – 7 km

KTM Komuter Sungai Buloh – Kajang – 53 km

Monorail – 8.6km

ERL – 57km

The population of the Klang Valley at 6 million, puts the km of rail per million population closer to 37. Incidentally, the Klang Valley is on par with Hong Kong and Singapore which are about 40 kilometers of rail per million, respectively.

Apparently, what is needed in the Klang Valley is not more kilometers of rail,  but better interconnectivity between the various rail networks, say between the Monorail and the railway hub at Sentral, not to mention the stretch between the Komuter Station at Mid Valley and the Abdullah Hukum LRT Station.

It is hoped that the authorities take a linear progression with the data, information construct to flesh out reasoned opinions on any given issue and while they are at it, they may want to avoid conjecture and suppositions to justify the Klang Valley MRT project, lest the crevice between the storyteller and the unwise becomes apparent.

Nice! - Tommy Peters