Crosscheck, don't get me wrong. I ain't no fan of either of them. Just giving credit where credit is due.
There's no doubt that inadequecies exist in both of them. But one is a national airline and the other isn't. When you are supposedly the pride of the nation you have to ensure that your staff are well-trained and kept happy to reflect the aspirations of the people. But somewhere along the line it became a gravy train and continued on this route till the loss of RM1.26b became public. Of course the clamour over this has been reduced somewhat over a period of time with other events taking precedence in the headlines. But in the public eye MAS has become synonymous with nepotism, incompetence, inefficiency and a candidate for government bailout.
Methinks Idris has the best intentions but has both hands tied behind his back. Changing the direction of a charging train going downhill at a tremendous rate is going to take a lot of effort even with Idris going full out, especially when his team is more concerned with protecting their asses and their empires.
As for the boys in red they are not without their inefficiencies. As you mentioned, the staff is being given the shaft especially with the culture of multi-tasking and cost-cutting. Seems that Tony is the only one moving while the others around are still looking for direction. However, to go from 2 737s to where it is today with an order for 100 320s was quite a feat and to continue to stay in the black says a lot about their determination. The thinking, unfortunately, has stayed small and many at the upper echelons cannot get out of their cut-cost small airline mindset. Will they end up the same way as MAS? Your guess is as good as mine.
Levelflight, the last sentence on your post is probably the reason why you will still be waiting for another 12 months.