Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Who will lead in Putrajaya post the 13th GE, and who will give us the reforms we demand? Posted: 21 Sep 2011 05:12 PM PDT Looking at the huge mandate he got, it would seem that I was not the only one taken in by his promised reform agenda. Maybe it was his seemingly squeeky clean image that persuaded so many of us that this man might just deliver on his promises of reforms. Today, Pak Lah concedes that his reform agenda fell by the wayside due to resistance to the same from within his own party and his own government colleagues. "Perhaps when I was in office I should have been more forceful about it considering the resistance I was facing," , Malaysiakini reports Pak Lah as saying. Pak Lah was also quoted in an earlier Malaysiakini report as saying that Najib, too, might face the same resistance from within to his proposed repeal of the ISA. My take, though, on why Pak Lah failed to deliver on his reform promises is that, post the 2004 GE, he was preoccupied with consolidating his position in the party in the hope that he could lead the charge into the next GE and return for a second term as PM. Delivering all his pre-election promises would make him popular with the rakyat generally, but would earn him the ire and thee wrath of the UMNO warlords, most notably, Dr M himself. It was common knowledge then that Pak Lah was facing a revolt from within the party, led by Dr M. In the end, Pak Lah opted to renege on his pre-election promises to us so as to keep the peace with the UMNO warlords. Today, Najib faces the same dilemma as his predecessor. And like his predecessor, Najib does not have it in him to go against the UMNO warlords. I will not hold my breath waiting for the repeal of the ISA to become a reality during his watch. Firstly, it might simply not happen. Secondly, it remains to be seen how draconian the proposed anti-terrorism laws that are intended to take the place of the ISA will be. Finally, and, for me, most importantly, is that Najib, unlike Pak Lah, came into office weighed down with a litany of scandals.
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| Posted: 21 Sep 2011 03:39 PM PDT So let's go back to retrace our steps. Khazanah and Tony and CIMB takes us through the motion making magic before the public eye. They are allowing Tony and company take up 20% of MAS shares under the pretext that Tony and that accountant Meranun can do their magic for MAS. Stupid MAS's capitalization is at RM 5 billion while Air Asia stands at RM 11 billion. So how can MAS with a shotgun compete with Air Asia which has a rocket launcher? Air Asia is fully loaded firing live ammunition while MAS fires blanks. Air Asia made more than RM 1 billion profit in 2010 while MAS incurred nightmarish losses despite Jala being there followed by Dato Tengku Azmil. Air Asia has more planes than MAS and MAS owns or leases boneshakers and call itself the airline with the golden service and touch. What a joke and this joke has been allowed to be uttered for too long by incompetent people at MAS and Khazanah. Then with so many factors assisting Tony and Kamarudin, Mas does indeed make profit. Some bright people at Khazanah will advise the PM to suggest since Mr. TF is already the single largest shareholder of MAS wand he has made profit why not merge Air Asia with MAS? How? Assist Tony to make Air Asia private and then allow him to inject the new entity into MAS. Give cheap loan to Tune Air to mop up the entire shares of Air Asia and then allow it to be injected into MAS. Tune Air the original owners of Air Asia will be freed from debt and the entire debt is now absorbed into the merged entity of a new MAS. The MAS owners will be Tony and company and Khazanah. Certainly and naturally, that will create synergies (read profits for some people) and hear this, gets protection from the Malaysian government. It's a long bullshitting exercise but one necessary to lead astray so many pesky bloggers. Some of them buyable but others are not I am trying to find the one thing that is repulsive about the MAS-AA deal. Why is this attempt by Khazanah in trying to mend MAS our national pride, appears to be a leaving a bitter after taste? What's so distasteful about it? My one reservation about this deal is that it shows Khazanah as trustee to the nation's wealth and therefore enforcer about how our assets are being managed isn't trying hard or serious enough to keep it national and strategic. Diluting the nation's share in MAS can also diminish what potential advantages the country can leverage by having a national airline. Every country has one that it leverages on to give it comparative advantages. The share swap with Tony Fernandes is effectively paying protection money. Give Tony shares in MAS in return of a pledge by Tony that he will not use Air Asia to compete with MAS. It's a payout to Tony in return for TF's promise not to work hard. It's also the old game of carving out the monopoly board among business rivals. Better to cooperate rather than bludgeon each other. So will MAS make profit after this after it secures a promise from Tony to not disturb it? The people at MAS appear to blame some unprofitable costs center (such as Firefly) for its losses. And it believes that removing this will turn MAS profitable plus having Tony and whoever else on board will allow MAS to benefit from their skills. It's more like better to keep friends close and enemies closer. I go to a friend's burial not to pay my respects but to make sure he's dead. So keep Tony on board to ensure he's not up to mischief which MAS people and by backward linkage, Khazanah people are incapable of dealing with.
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