MAS-AirAsia imbroglio shows reforms can’t take off in Malaysian under UMNO regime

MARCH 15 — The MAS unions must be feeling on top of the world as they go out of their way to scupper the Malaysia Airlines-AirAsia share swap to ensure they keep their jobs and benefits while the flag carrier is awash with red ink.

They have frightened Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is now having second thoughts about the deal that was meant to save a very sick airline. An airline that lost RM2.52 billion in Financial Year 2011, of which some RM1 billion is provision or the inelegant but apt phrase “kitchen-sinking” for write-offs of obsolete spare parts, return of leased aircraft and other write-downs of old aircraft.

The unions know that Najib is only interested in keeping electoral support for the next general election, especially to win back Selangor, even at the expense of carrying the burden of a loss-making airline.

So they meet him, they threaten to withdraw support if the new MAS management cuts their benefits and their jobs that make the airline appear bloated and cumbersome to fight a nimble upstart like AirAsia that went from a tiny two-plane operation into Southeast Asia’s largest budget carrier.

Now, they want to meet parliamentarians to press their case, to tell Najib they mean business and their votes are up for sale. We shall see if Pakatan Rakyat buckles like Najib and gives in to such demands because the blame should go to the previous airline management that broke the piggy bank and expanded operations across the world.

If both sides give in, the days of serious reforms are over and, heck, have yet to take off. The great transformation that Najib talks about, the change that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim promises, is just a pipe dream if the MAS unions have their way.

The fact of the matter is that MAS is a sick airline. On its death-bed. About to give up the mortal coil. There was an increase in revenues, no doubt. But costs remain high.

Why? Lopsided contracts for one. Pricey leases for two. So now MAS, with its new management, is slicing and dicing its way through the morass and ensuring the once-proud wau can fly high and proud again. Go back to the days of golden service, the real Malaysian Hospitality (MH) that it now promotes.

This can only happen if the management is given a free hand. There will be job cuts, for sure. There will be collateral damage. But it has to be done. Datuk Seri Idris Jala did his best to cut the bloat, unfortunately he made more money by selling off MAS properties and assets. Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin went on a re-fleeting exercise to keep MAS competitive with the Middle-East carriers but he made the mistake of taking in more people.

None of them actually touched on the fundamentals of the airline. That its mission of providing employment for all and its business model are out of fashion. Even SIA takes drastic measures to keep being profitable. But MAS is the great welfare state that most Malaysian government-linked-companies have become, exactly like a civil service where performance does not match pay and benefits.

Yes, there are MAS staffers who work hard, who do their best. Equally, there are those who don’t care. And enough of those who don’t care are now asking Najib to not care about the airline, just care about them.

Najib has a choice. See this eight-month alliance through for the long-term benefit of MAS or stumble to the demands of less than 20,000 people. Show courage in pushing through reforms or retreat at the first sign of opposition to his ideas. He has to show that he is captain of the ship, be the last man onboard as it goes down, or fight to take it to higher heights.

If the prime minister blinks now, all is lost for MAS, and Malaysia.