Malaysia's not much better, though they won't quite throw you in jail for hanky panky. You get a medal for it.
Eg. The shareprice of Air Asia doubled in the last 3 months, while that of MAS went down 40% in the 3 months leading up to the announcement of this MAS-AK share "swap".
Tony Fernandes now gets MH at a discount, while the Malaysian taxpayer forked out much more for Air Asia. Who bailed who out? Did MH bail out Air Asia or did Air Asia bail out MH? Why did the share prices move in such specific directions in the 3 months leading up to this announcement?
Looking at the Air Asia board, the ruling party has appointed all their cronies there.
Do things look as simple as they seem? If QF wants to jump into bed with MH-Air Asia, I hope they know they have to handsomely reward everyone from the number 1 man down.
MH is not an unprofitable airline per se. It's just that everyone in MH and their cronies are making money from MH through their own little cosy contracts. In fact the old MH management spent more time thinking of which supply contracts they could award to their family and friends, rather than how to actually improve the airline. Rumours abound of eggs being sold to MH Catering at RM4 (US$1.35) per egg, because "so-and-so"'s relative owned the farm that supplied these eggs.
Why is it that Malaysia keeps pumping bad money into Proton year after year? Volkswagen tried to buy it, but the Malaysian govt said that all existing supply contracts must stay, and they could not get rid of the Malaysian management. Again - the establishment would rather this crappy company stay afloat to feed their relatives and friends.
Malaysia is indeed truly Asia. If AJ and co think that the Malaysian government is sitting around waiting in eager anticipation for QF to set up an airline there and fight with MH and AK for those precious air rights, he better think again.
Only Singapore would merrily allow QF to set up a proxy airline and take on precious air rights which SQ fought for decades to achieve, for the sake of growing its "air hub status" and its economy, creating jobs in the process. Perhaps the presence of the QF Group hub in Singapore is beneficial to the local economy, which was the number one concern of the SIN govt in this whole venture. 3K has grown much faster since Temasek divested of its stake. Temasek did not get SQ and MI and TR to ruin 3K and prevent their growing out of SIN.
However this is why Singapore is Singapore, and Malaysia will always be Malaysia, Thailand will always be Thailand and Indonesia will always be Indonesia!