Updates @ 4:30 pm on 18-5-2012: Please read “Rafidah gone off her rockers”. If YB Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz has gone off her rockers then AJ has gone senile to have signed the secret “Supplementary Collaborative Agreement” and two MOUs with AirAsia/AAX almost immediately after the secret share swap was unwound. Until this day AJ could not reveal what were the exact nature of the collaborations. So far, what we have witnessed was a collaboration based on “MAS gives ALL, AirAsia/AirAsia X take ALL”, in HERE.
The secret MAS-AirAsia share swap has been unwound by YAB PM, YAB Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak, on 2-5-2012.
It must follow suit that all the appointments that were made after the said secret share swap must also be terminated because those appointments were made under the ill thought out advice and an undue influence of those irresponsible personalities in Khazanah especially, En Mohammed Rashdan Yusof aka Danny (Rashdan), the Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar (Amok)’s most trusted crony and ex-business partner in BinaFikir Sdn Bhd, in HERE.
After the the said secret share swap was unwound, came the long awaited announcement of the departure of Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, both of whom are from Tune Air Sdn Bhd and AirAsia/AirAsia X Sdn Bhd, from the board of Director of MAS.
Yours truly has been informed by reliable sources that both of them are still enjoying the special discounted fare costing only 10% of whatever class when they are travelling on MAS. It is only fair that such benefits cannot be accorded to both of them as they were put on Board of MAS by Khazanah by virtue of their shareholding in MAS.
En Ahmad Jauhari Yahya (AJ), the Group CEO, is duty bound to forthwith terminate all such benefits that were accorded to ex-directors of MAS. If we were to go by AJ’s standard of managing MAS where he is not only condoning but went all out to protect Rashdan’s abused of power by the upgrading his maid and baby to First Class Cabin, which was contrary to MAS Policy, also in HERE, then these two former directors from AirAsia will no doubt carry on to enjoy the discounted First Class fare to London to watch the QPR games.
As far as AJ is concerned when it comes to matters related to AiraAsia/AirAsia X, MAS is not BLEEDING. MAS is only BLEEDING when it involves staff benefits and cutting of specific routes to JB/Kuching/KK (Firefly), Surabaya (MAS), Bandung (MAS) and Sydney (MAS).
Now AirAsia X has the monopoly to operate the profitable routes to Surabaya and Bandung and its fares and frequencies have also been increased. MAS abandoned its right to the additional route to Sydney, AirAsia X was able to expand its operation to Sydney. Thanks to AJ and Rashdan, Amok’s most rusted crony, and of course, Mr Shane Nollan too.
MYCC should also investigate into the cutting of routes by MAS especially to Surabaya and Bandung as it is a clear case of stifling competition, in HERE & HERE. Dr Wafi, Head of Legal Department, sudden resignation may be due to the possible contravention of the Competition Act, 2010.
The Board of Directors namely, Datuk Azman Yahya of SCOMI fame, Datuk Rohana of ASTRO, Datuk Krishnan Tan of IJM, Tan Sri Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah of Landmark, all of whom have zero knowledge about aviation industry and were also appointed after the secret share swap should also be terminated forthwith, in HERE.
Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof, the Chairman of MAS, can be spared for the moment as he was appointed several days before the secret share swap.
Quite frankly, with all the controversies in MAS after the share swap, zero performance for the past 9 months after their questionable appointment, their ill thought out decisions to extend the contracts of Mr Shane Nollan, PlaneConsult, condone Rashdan’s abused of power, endorsement of the extremely low fares charged to AirAsia X for uplifting of its 35,000 passengers prior to and after the Re-Acccomodation Agreement, also in HERE, and their willful blindness to what are happening in MAS, Datuk Azman Yahya, Datuk Krishnan Tan, Datuk Rohana and Tan Sri Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah should take the honorable steps to immediately tender their respective resignation and get out of MAS gracefully before they are forced out of MAS in disgrace.
Mr Shane Nollan of PlaneConsult, En Rozman Omar, En Azhari Dahlan, Puan Nor Zalida Ahmad and PlaneConsult are tainted with conflict of interest as they were directly or indirectly connected to AirAsia, in HERE and HERE.
Yours truly has been informed that after the MAS unions have been given the two day notice to provide proposals of how to turn around MAS to the Board of Directors, MESA in their proposal clearly stated that all those that were appointed after the secret share swap, including the Board of Directors, must be removed from MAS as one of the turn around plan for MAS.
Just a little bit of background information. BinaFikir Sdn Bhd was the consultant and brainchild of the failed Project known as “Widespread Asset un-Bundling” aka “WAU”. It was under WAU that MAS sold many of its valuable assets to raise cash for its operation. It was asset stripping. As a result of WAU, 70% of the equity in MAS Catering Sdn Bhd was sold to Gubahan Saujana Sdn Bhd, a company owned by the brother of the former PM, Datuk Ibrahim bin Ahmad Badawi. Thereafter, MAS enter into a lop-sided agreement with MAS Catering Sdn Bhd, now known as LSG Sky Chef Brahim’s Sdn Bhd, to provide food supplies and cabin services for 25 years. Your truly believes that this had to be the longest agreement ever entered into the aviation industry. It should be recored in the Guinness Book of Record. This lop-sided agreement cost MAS RM6.25 billion and about RM270 million a year, in HERE. No wonder MAS is BLEEDING!
The Deputy Minister of Finance, YB Senator Datuk Donald Lim, is still having problems in obtaining the simple answers on the consultancy fees charged by BinaFikir Sdn Bhd and the twelve companies involved in the MAS fuel hedging losses totaling RM3.3 billion, in HERE. This afternoon, yours truly has received a fax copy of the answer which did not provide the cost of the consultancy fees and the name of the twelve companies. Why were these information shrouded with secrecy? May be the BinaFikir Sdn Bhd’s consultancy fees was by the hundred of million Ringgit and the twelve companies will exposed certain personalities.
Anyway Parliament will commence on 12-6- 2012. Yours truly will pursue these matters until those little Napoleons in Khazanah give the informations to Parliament. If you have any specific questions for Parliament, please let yours truly have it before 18-5-2012, the due date for submission of Parliamentary Questions. Just pose your proposed questions as a comment here.
Before AJ and Rashdan, the Amok’s most trusted crony, could dream about carrying out their ill thought out Business Plan and/or the secret Supplementary Collaborative Agreement and/or two “MOUs”, yours truly calls upon the Government to read what the former MD of MAS had got to say about what had happened in MAS.
Please see below:
Recently MAS and Air-Asia entered into an arrangement to swap shares. In consequence Air-Asia has two representatives on the Board of MAS. Many quarters questioned the move to swap shares in view of the fact that the arrangement would cause adverse implications to MAS.
Some of the implications are as follows:-
(i) The most critical problem facing MAS is the shortage of funds to finance the purchase of Airbus 380 and B737-800 aircraft. It is alleged that the total amount required is RM12 billions.
The Government as the major shareholder has to play a leading role in the process of fund raising. The current management is proposing to raise funds through the sales of movable assets in engineering, cargo, training and ground handling. These departments will be under separate joint-venture companies and MAS will not be in complete control of those companies. It means that MAS will have to outsource those services. The quality of the total MAS services will be adversely affected. Employees’ reactions to the move will affect the operations adversely and it will take a long time to come back to normal. The image of the airline, will also be adversely affected in the process.
(ii) MAS has over the years developed its Engineering capabilities to a very high level. The facilities and equipment are comparable to any of the best outfits in the world. The expertise is also comparable to any other similar organization in the world.
The current management’s move to sell some of the engineering assets and to change the management structure is a negative step and should not be proceeded with. MAS should be allowed to continue with its objective of making its engineering capabilities to be of world class and recognized by the aviation industry world-wide and in the process engineering will become a major income earner from third party customers contributing to the profitability of the airline.
(iii) The share swap between AirAsia and MAS does not give any advantage to MAS. The modes of operations of both airlines are different as they are on different business models. In fact the arrangement is suicidal to MAS as it has to compete against Air-Asia on the same routes with a disadvantaged business model. Under the arrangement, AirAsia operates low fare while MAS operates premier services. This arrangement is suicidal for MAS in view of the fact that the markets they are competing in, are low fare price sensitive markets.
The solution is for MAS to provide both premier and low fare services. This can be done so that MAS can compete against AirAsia fairly. It is a matter of making some adjustments to the terms and conditions of carriage and making some changes to the operating procedure. MAS should be able to prevail in the competition.
iv) The share swap between Air-Asia and MAS resulting in the appointments of representatives of Air-Asia on the Board of MAS was a serious mistake and should be revoked. Air-Asia and MAS are still in competition on almost all the MAS routes and it is highly irregular to have the airline’s opponents making strategic decisions for the company’s own operations. Air-Asia has under the arrangement agreed to maintain their aircraft at MAS facilities in consequence of the share swap. This arrangement is in fact for mutual benefit as Air-Asia is given favourable rates. Even if there was no share swap, it would be in the interest of Air-Asia to maintain their aircraft with MAS as otherwise AirAsia will have to maintain their aircraft with SIA whose rates are no better than MAS. Without the share swap the two airlines can still cooperate for mutual benefit.
(v) The current management has taken steps to move staff from Area A at Subang Airport to KLIA. The staff concerned (a fairly large number) are very unhappy as it means that they have to overhaul everything, moving house to Sepang and this will cause severe hardship to them.
It is proposed that such a move should be stopped. Instead since the land in Area A is to be used for some purposes, the staff there should instead be moved to Area B and not to KLIA.
CONCLUSION:
1. In consequence of the move to swap shares between MAS and Air-Asia, the airlines have to face changes which are affecting MAS adversely in many aspects. It is recommended that the arrangement be revoked.
2. Currently the staff morale is very low and action should be taken to improve the situation quickly. The membership of the Board and the senior management must be examined and reconstituted. People with high integrity, the right knowledge, experience and with the national interest at heart, should provide the leadership of the organization as soon as possible.
3. There are many critical issues that need to be solved on an urgent basis. The most pressing issue is the financial aspect. The Chairman of the company said that the company was very sick and needed urgent treatment, while the Managing Director also said that unless the financial situation was fixed fast, the company would be bankrupt soon. It is therefore a serious situation and the government must now be involved in resolving the problem.
4. The traffic rights available to the national carrier should be examined. It appears that some carriers especially those from the Middle East are enjoying traffic rights at our expense. They are practising the illegal carriage of 6th Freedom traffic at our expense. This is a very serious intrusion into the company’s business opportunity. This issue should be examined fast with the assistance of the government. In the context of the current competitive environment, action must be taken fast to conclude effective strategic alliances with other carriers where relevant.
5. It should be noted that the current management is now actively engaged in negotiating the sale of assets in engineering, training etc. It is important that the activities be suspended immediately otherwise it will be too late to take remedial measures. The proposed formation of joint-venture companies relating to engineering, training etc. should also be suspended before it is too late.
Source: http://mastroubleshooters.blogspot.com/2012/05/20012003-mas-flight-plan-that-never.html
