TR was reportedly a proxy and front man for umno and toon mamak kutty as evidenced from his affidavit in some legal actions initiated.
As a front man he enjoyed the glamour of being the owner and chairman of the national carrier. As some of you can remember, before he could warm his seat as chairman, he was made the president of IATA by vested interests in the global airline industry. He was virtually in cloud nine feted by mat sallehs out to milk MAS; like a jaguh kampung riding high in the international arena. Likewise the minor jaguh kampungs get the cheap thrill of getting the super ranger flight chasing some meaningless round the world b777 non stop flight for MAS...didn't it ever occur to those hilly bilies that the mat salleh were setting them up for a big kill?
The subsequent purchase of the B777s and newer B744s made some very rich middlemen running leasing contracts.