High time for a RCI on Malaysia Airlines
Joe Fernandez | March 3, 2012
We have to determine how much of the losses at MAS are due to Malaysia Airlines, the national carrier.
COMMENT
It’s a familiar story. Malaysia Airlines has once again now well passed the threshold of bankruptcy after chalking up RM2.52 billion in losses for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2011.
This means that the Umno gravy train at the airline and company alone can be conservatively estimated at RM3.5 billion for last year, that is, the losses plus a modest RM1 billion in after-tax profit.
The losses will continue, the bleeding will continue, thanks to the RM150 per serving nasi lemak syndrome, among others.
The inevitable bail-out, if not bankruptcy, looms unless Khazanah Nasional Bhd thinks out of the box. That concept will be explored further in a little while.
Hopefully, Petronas will not be called upon again to bail out Malaysian Airlines System Bhd (MAS), the company, with petrodollars stolen from Sabah and Sarawak which, according to the World Bank in 2010, have the dubious distinction of being the poorest states in Malaysia.
One question to consider before bail-outs is whether Khazanah Nasional should hand over its 50% stake in Tune Air Sdn Bhd to MAS to provide the company with yet another income stream. Tune Air has a 20% controlling stake in AirAsia. The other 80% of AirAsia shares are either owned by the staff or listed on the stock market.
History keeps repeating itself at MAS because obviously the people there are forced to keep doing whatever it is that they are doing in the same old manner ever since the Malaysia Singapore Airlines (MSA) split in 1972.
A long overdue Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) should be set up to probe MAS. AirAsia and Singapore Airlines should also be invited to provide testimony on the industry.
We have to determine as well how much of the losses at MAS are due to Malaysia Airlines being the national flag carrier. Anything national or under the Malaysia Boleh slogan, which covers a multitude of sins, should be suspect.
Political interference
One cannot expect a different and better result if the approach remains the same as the previous one which had proven to be disastrous.
The crux of the problem at MAS, externally and internally, is corruption. This means opportunism, nepotism, collusion and cronyism. Externally, there’s a lot of political interference from those who have nothing but the almighty ringgit sign in their eyes.
If leadership – delivering the goods – is all about being effective, the emphasis in management – getting people to work, getting work out of people, getting the work done – is on efficiency.
MAS fails on both points.
The proof is all there, splashed in red ink, in the latest figures announced on Feb 29. Why Feb 29 which comes only once in four years?
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Idris Jala, was doing well as MAS chief when he was suddenly removed under subtle political pressure to his present position which keeps him in the backroom.
The story was that many people were not happy with Jala during his time at MAS because they could no longer win Ali Baba contracts at inflated prices and promptly sub-contract them out to successive hands before the last person in the chain – usually a Chinese (the Baba) perennially on the brink of insolvency – fulfilled it for a pittance.
There’s the notorious example revealed in Parliament not so long ago of a so-called supplier charging MAS RM150 for each serving of the humble nasi lemak on board flights. This was a contract which went through numerous hands before being fulfilled by the last person at RM15 per serving. MAS could have sold the nasi lemak at RM25 per serving to passengers and still make a decent profit instead of burdening further them with a mark-up on the RM150.
No five-star hotel in Malaysia charges more than RM25 for a serving of nasi lemak.
Hare-brained exercise
After the outcry in Parliament, the supplier had to cut his rate to RM75 per nasi lemak serving. We don’t know how much MAS is charging passengers for nasi lemak after their mark-up.
The supplier, it was revealed in Parliament, was related to then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, “Mr Clean” himself.
However, Jala wasn’t the worst example of political interference in MAS.
There was the time, not so long ago, when Tajudin Ramli was literally handed MAS on a silver platter under a privatisation exercise which can only be described as hare-brained. The then prime minister was Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
We learnt that Tajudin became Mahathir’s scapegoat to cover up the RM15.5 billion in foreign exchange losses incurred by Bank Negara under his (Mahathir’s) direction.
Mahathir was assisted by Nor Mohamed Yakcop – then in Bank Negara – in this “crime”: gambling away the people’s money in speculation, even before he accused George Soros of being a moron on the same issue – speculation – during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998.
Nor Mohamed still remains in the government as a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department. He was even Finance Minister II not so long ago before being shunted sideways to his present position overseeing the revamp of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU).
MAS is a never-ending story, the kind of story which will one day see Malaysians witnessing at home the same Greek tragedy being played out in Athens.
Radical solution
One radical solution for the proposed RCI on Malaysia Airlines to consider is whether it would be feasible for Khazanah Nasional to exchange the national flag carrier lock, stock and barrel – minus liabilities and losses – with Tony Fernandes for his partner Kamarudin Meranun’s and his combined 50% stake in Tune Air Sdn Bhd.
Fernandes and Kamarudin are already on the board of MAS as non-independent, non-executive directors. Besides, the duo are members of the MAS management committee, whatever that means.
AirAsia in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are of course different entities which Fernandes and his Malaysian partner and/or partners run in those countries with local partners.
If the Umno government can hand over MAS to Tajudin, there’s no reason why it can’t hand over the company, this time, to Fernandes – to prove its belief in 1Malaysia.
If Tune Air fails under Khazanah Nasional, it can always exchange the company again, along with AirAsia Malaysia, with Fernandes for MAS which will be doing extremely well by that time.