Tan Sri Bashir upholding “Rakyat DiDahulukan”!

Updated @ 1:30 pm 3-12-2011: Rumour has it that Tan Sri Bashir will be given the boot at the 6 pm meeting with Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar. Yours truly hopes that this is just a rumour but in this Boleh Land more often than not rumours turned out to be true later. Please read HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.   

Updated @ 12 noon 2-12-2011: Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, MD of Khazanah, has been extremely quiet over the secret MAS – AirAsia share swap, CCF and the constant attacks against MAHB by the Spin Doctor. Rummour has it that Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar has summoned Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad, the MD of MAHB, to a meeting at 6 pm on Saturday (3-12-2011) in Khazanah HQ.  Going by Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar’s stand during the meeting with bloggers on 16-8-2011 that “Tan Sri Bashir has done a brilliant job in MAHB”, yours truly wild guess is Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar would want to back Tan Sri Bashir to stand firm and not allow MAHB to be pushed around by the Spin Doctor.

Yours truly knew as a matter of fact that the Spin Dr is a good friend of Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar but professionalism shall prevail. It will be interesting to see what is going to happen after the said meeting.

Yours truly also hopes that Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar will also advise Tan Sri Bashir not to allow any airline to owe Airport Tax and to take immediate actions to stop all facilities in the airport if an airline does not pay up the Airport Tax within two weeks and that MAHB should also take actions to demand for payment of the Airport Taxes totaling RM6.895 million held by AirAsia and AirAsia X Sdn Bhd for the “untravelled passengers”. Read HERE.

Yg Bhg Tan Bashir Ahmad (Tan Sri Bashir), MD of Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB), SYABAS to you for standing up for the elderly, disabled persons, pregnant women, young kids and for upholding YAB PM’s policy of “Rakyat DiDahulukan”/ “PEOPLE FIRST” by the MAHB’s decision to build the aerobridge for KLIA-2.

Tan Sri, you are running Malaysian airport for the rakyat. You must stand up for the convenience of all Malaysians. KLIA-2 must have modern facilities like other developed nations. Even Cambodia and Myanmar airports have aerobridge. Tan Sri, you are absolutely right to listen to the Rakyat especially the disabled persons above and others.

The whole nation is behind you, your GM for Operations, Datuk Azmi Murad, and all your officers in MAHB.  Tan Sri, have no worry, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, the MD of Khazanah, in the presence of his ex-business partner in BinaFikir Sdn Bhd, En Mohammed Rashdan Yusof, had told several bloggers including, Datuk Rocky of RockyBru, OutSyed The Box, Big Dog, Apanama, A Voice and yours truly on the night of 16-8-2011 (during Puasa month) in KL Hilton that “Tan Sri Bashir has done a brilliant job in MAB and there was no reason to interfere and/or to remove him from MAB”. In fact, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar did also declare that AirAsia X Sdn Bhd deal in the secret share swap was a “DODGY DEAL”!

Yours truly is certain that Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, a highly qualified person from a world famous Cambridge University and of  good conscience and high integrity, will NOT part take in or tolerate any attempt to interfere with Tan Sri’s well thought out judgements and/or to remove Tan Sri just to realise the grand agendas or dreams of a certain group of “powerful people” of yesteryears.

Yours truly also believes that Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar will no doubt put the interests of the elderly, disabled persons, pregnant women, young children and etc above the narrow interests of a group of persons or certain business models that needed constant helps from every where including KHAZANAH.  Yours truly believes that Khazanah is not a national organization that will constantly provide a “LEG ON” for the hangers on and parasites of this beloved nation of ours!

Move on Tan Sri. The nation can’t succumb to the wishes, whims and facies of a group of persons or certain business models. The “HONEYMOON ERA” was all over and gone. It is now the new era of “RAKYAT DIDAHULUKAN“ and “PENCAPAIAN DIUTAMAKAN”. 

A bit of the background:

Firstly, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes (TF) said that AirAsia opposed the used of aerobridge for KLIA-2 as it does not fit in with AirAsia’s business model.  This has caused the disabled persons to protest as they felt that their disabilities have not been taken into account by the Ministry of Transport i.e. the Government. Yours truly supported the elderly, disabled persons, pregnant women and young children on the issue of installations of aerobridge and other modern in KLIA-2.  Read HERE.  Then the issue of aerobridge subsided.

After a week or so, a press conference was initially called to oppose the increment in Airport from RM25 to RM32 but it was cancelled at the 11th hour. Then TF tweeted that AirAsia will not collect airport taxes on behalf of MAB because the increased of RM7 was far too much. Your truly, responded to the said tweet, which was, of course, published by the Star. Read HERE.

Thereafter,  there was a U-turned and AirAsia has agreed to collect the Airport Tax. Quite frankly, yours truly have never heard in other parts of the world where an airline made any attempt to dictate terms to the airport authority or defy airport authority,  whether on increment of Airport Taxes or facilities like aerobridge to be built for new airport. But in this “Boleh Land” of ours, AirAsia seemed to be able to do so. In any event, our Airport Taxes are still the lowest in the region except Indonesia.

Well, AirAsia has a history of owing Airport Taxes of about RM120 millions for many years and due to the pressures exerted in Parliament it finally paid up with a discount of 30% during the “honeymoon era” under Badawi’s Administration. In fact, AirAsia Bhd and AirAsia X Sdn Bhd are still holding on to the Airport Taxes for “un-travelled passengers” totaling RM6.895 million. Read HERE.

Strangely enough, when AirAsia was owing Airport Taxes for many years, TF never complained about the Airport Tax or that MAHB didn’t take actions to claim for the outstanding Airport Tax debts. At that material times, there was nothing MAHB could do with a group  of “very powerful person” running amok every where. Perhaps, it must have been these circumstances that have made a person to be a spoilt brat!

By the way it only cost about 22 Sen per passenger for the used of aerobridge and the convenience is invaluable especially for the elderly, disabled persons, pregnant women and young children. Not to mention the safety for the passengers and security of the airport. The extra charge of 22 Sen is just pittance if compare with the list of the hidden charges of AirAsia like Convenience Fees RM8, Counter Check In RM10, Wheel Chair RM15 and etc. For full details of the said hidden charges in HERE.

The Spin Dr is still at work! Read HERE, HERE & HERE.

Please read below the interesting article in the NST today about the current problems over Airport Tax and aerobridge between Tan Sri Bashir and TF.

“Bashir, Fernandes in staring contest?”

by Presenna Nambiar presenna@nstp.com.my 2011/12/01

THE issues: aerobridges and airport tax. The characters: AirAsia Bhd chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad. The prize: unknown.

On Tuesday, Bashir surprised everyone by announcing that the airport operator would go ahead with the instalment of aerobridges.

He backtracked from an earlier decision not to use aerobridges, going against the wishes of its biggest client, the world’s largest low-cost carrier AirAsia.

Bashir’s reason? “It was for the people”.
In recent weeks, Fernandes has been up in arms on the topic of airport tax hike.

He went onto Twitter and Facebook to garner support for his cause to stop the airport operator from increasing its passenger service charge or airport tax.

Fernandes’ reason? “It was for the people”.

Do the people want an increase in airport tax? Maybe “want” is a strong word. But with a better terminal, we could probably suffer it.

Do the people want aerobridges? At a cost of 25 sen per passenger, a majority seem to.

Does it make sound business sense for MAHB to never increase its charges? Analysts who upgraded the stock after the decision would say a resounding “no”.

As Bashir argues it, the timing of a hike is never right. There’s always a reason to keep it status quo, such as it being either an economic downturn or an election year.

For Fernandes, the extra cost of paying and using an aerobridge does not fit with its business model. No matter that the passengers are willing to foot the bill.

Now, it’s clear that both parties are picking and choosing what they do for the people.

While some may argue an increase in airport tax is not for the people, others would argue that our interests went out the window when AirAsia started charging RM10 for checking in via the counter.

There must be a reason for these going-ons. The question is what? What’s the purpose of having a popularity contest for business entities? Everyone knows businesses are here to make money.