Updated: 25-10-2011 Please read the article quoted from Business Time report dated 21-7-2006 – AirAsia not the ‘golden child’. You will see from this report how AirAsia got all the helps (i.e. AirAsia was given 91 trunk routes and etc) from the Badawi’s Administration under the so-called “domestic air rationalisation exercise” and AirAsia grew at the expense of MAS.
The Star reported today that “that Khazanah, which owns a 69% stake in MAS, is said to have concluded negotiations with AirAsia chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes to come up with a deal to save the national carrier”. “Fernandes is to get 20% equity in MAS under the deal that is to be signed this week, with some sources saying it has already received the Government’s approval and could be inked today.”
In my immediate respond to the above, may I pose three innocent questions to Tan Sri Datuk Azman Hj Mokhtar: Why these so-called negotiations of the share swap were done with such secrecy? Why was there a need for such a rush for this so-called share swap to be signed by this week? Is MAS really in dire strait of collapsing or other airline?
The MAS/AirAsia share swap deal: “AirAsia’s Fernandes to gain 20% stake in national carrier”. The front page sources story in the Star today. “Fernandes declined to comment when asked about the deal.”, so says The Star. This was not what we know of Tony Fernandes, who loves publicity and is well known to jump on anything to say his bit to enhance his image. Read HERE.
This “share swap deal” is a joke of the century. It would appear that now AirAsia, which has been known to have the special “abilities” to owe airport taxes to the tune of more than RM125 million since it inception until 2010, has been made out to look like a white knight for MAS.
THE PERTINENT QUESTION NOW IS: IS AIRASIA BAILING OUT MAS OR MAS HAS BEEN USED AS A VEHICLE TO BAIL OUT AIRASIA? Your views please, YB Senator Datuk Idris Jala, the former CEO of MAS, on this issue.
Please read further. I leave it to you to judge.
On 24-01-2011 after the hearing of the Lotus dispute in the High Court in London was adjourned and 10 days full trial was fixed for March 2011, Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes immediately sent a message on Twitter as follows:
“Very very happy over the judgment today.” “And extremely happy that full trial brought forward to 21 March. The good do always eventually win.”