KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — Umno lawmakers accused Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar and Tan Sri Tony Fernandes today of cheating the public in the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia share swap.
Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin called on Khazanah chief executive Azman to be investigated by graftbusters after the state investment agency exchanged 20.5 per cent of the national carrier for a 10 per cent stake in Asia’s top-performing budget airline. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) must call Tan Sri Azman ... all of them ... if there is any misappropriation, stuff them into jail,” the Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers deputy chief told Parliament. “How can Khazanah be fooled? Azman Mokhtar, how can he be so stupid, to be ‘tuned’ by Tony Fernandes. If I was in such a position, I would resign rather than troubling others. “Maybe they are not stupid. Maybe they get huge profits by squeezing and grabbing money from the public,” he said, referring to the AirAsia CEO’s company Tune Air which now owns a fifth of MAS.
Sri Gading MP Mohamad Aziz also accused AirAsia of “clearly cheating the public and now trying to cheat MAS.” “If this kind of man (Fernandes) can control us, God forgive us,” he said while debating Budget 2012.
Bung Mokhtar also said the government should “not be scared of Fernandes. Whatever he wants, we give. He wants to overcharge for excess baggage and suck the blood of poor villagers.
“Now I hear he has a plan in the future to take over all domestic flights and MAS will only have international flights. If we give this to him, the country will be in ruins. It will be the end of the world for us,” he said. Bung said if the government could not provide a satisfactory answer, it meant that “government officials colluded with AirAsia and has vested interests.”
The MAS-AirAsia swap has come under fire from both sides of the political divide as well as employees of MAS who believe the deal will affect their careers.
The finance ministry said earlier this month that the deal is being investigated by Bursa Malaysia and the Securities Commission for insider trading despite the swap being agreed on three months ago. MAS’s poor financial performance of late had resulted in the share swap with AirAsia on August 9.
This allowed AirAsia boss Fernandes to sit on the MAS board, ostensibly to help turn the ailing airline around.
MAS had announced in August a net loss of RM527 million for the second quarter of 2011 due to higher fuel costs despite recording a better yield and a nine per cent growth in passenger revenue from the same period last year. This brings total losses in the first half of the year to RM769 million even as the airline said that profit outlook for the second half of the year appears bleak.
Putrajaya insisted last month it had “no choice” but to implement the controversial share swap as “if (MAS) continues to make losses and the government has to inject funds, then there will be even more anger.”Critics have accused the budget carrier’s boss of taking advantage of the loss-making national airline to fuel his personal ambitions, the latest being the acquisition of English Premier League club, Queens Park Rangers (QPR). The national carrier will sponsor QPR’s home jersey for the next two seasons, while AirAsia’s logo will be emblazoned on the team’s away and third kits in a “multi-million pound” deal.
Finally I hear and read some UMNO MPs wailing against the sting in the air. You get bamboozled by the razzle dazzle of the super salesman known as Tony F and the Mafiosi Azman Mokhtar, you finally come to your senses that these people are doing a big scam. But I bet ya- Tony F will come visiting these two and offering packaged holidays and the issue will die out a premature death.
I wrote about this sometime ago and I have been accused of pushing the racist angle because the owner of AA is one Ceylonese. This is a free market economy- whatever he wishes to do with his AA , that’s not our damn business. But when he sticks his fingers into the ass asset belonging to the nation and whose stakeholders are the people of Malaysia, we have every right to question the motives of those who are pushing for a private business agenda.
Except one thing- the UMNO MPs are missing one person who is as involved as Tony and Azman are- the man who I described as the modern day Hamman. Now, if you all remember a little bit of religious history, especially about the story of Moses, you will remember, Hamman was the majordomo for Pharoah. In modern day terms, you could say, Hamman was the chief broker, deal maker, official merchant banker for Firaun or Pharoah. But the old day Hamman was at least ethical in serving only one paymaster. The modern day Hamman services 2 masters at one- AirAsia and Khazanah. The modern day Hamman, reappearing in the person of the CIMB boss services both Tony and Azman. Ouch!
Just in case the two chief noise makers from the BN, Bung Mokhtar and Mohamad Aziz don’t yet know- the deal was planned as far back as 2 year ago my friends.
People want to take the easy way out when solving the MAS issue. Why can SIA still make profits? How come Emirates who started much the same way as MAS grew into the big and profitable airline it now is? How did Etihad succeed?
The simple answer is because MAS operates on a business model shaped like an inverted pyramid. At every level people skim off the milk. The people who decide that the MAS uniforms be tailored by some cekai tailoring outfit in Sungai Buloh. The supplier who supplies funkeong standard shoes and handbags. (last time when we cant afford Bata shoes, we wore FunKeong- remember?) Even the people who interviewed prospective pilots for a RM 500 fee. The catering service that is now paid RM 7 million a year when the initial cost was RM 2 million a year. The VPs who are given BMW 5 Series with drivers and SVPs who may be driving Porsches around.
Yet despite the bloodletting by Idris’Al Dunlap’ Jala, MAS is still drowning. Its losing RM 5 million a day!
Now you bring in a master butcher to save MAS.
I remember a few years ago, when people and journalists were looking for Eric Chia- Karpal Singh boomed- fellas you are looking for him at the wrong address. He is staying at Sri Perdana.
So, Bung Mokhtar and Yb M Aziz, please look for the 3rd man, the banker at the correct address yes. And mention also his name in your tirades. Kalau you orang berani lah!.
"And mention also his name in your tirades. Kalau you orang berani lah!."
ReplyDeletebrutal ni, dato'. hahaha
In 1993,I was an inexperience young man who became a shareholder of Mesti Ada Salah(MAS).
ReplyDeleteI loss a small sum of money when I cut loss but the lesson that I learnt is that the reason MAS have been losing money year in year out is because MAS is the CASH COW for UMNO.
MAS is like PROTON where all purchases by this two companies MUST BENEFIT UMNO and its CRONIES.
Just like the reason why BANK BUMI is BANKRUPT.
Why a country with an abundance of natural resources with talented and clever citizen who invented the PEN DRIVE is having a debt of RM407 BILLION?
The reason is simple in that we have a CORRUPT PARTY CALLED UMNO who is ruinning the country.
That is also the reason why BIG DOG body is so BIG.
The CIMB guy is not even a politician. Just because he is related to a hot shot in UMNO, both these loudmouth are know which side their bread is buttered.
ReplyDeleteDato,these Umno lawmakers sure took their sweet time coming out against the MAS/AA share swap.Dunno what made them come out now.Must be some things that are stirring the hornets nest.But it is better to have Umno politicians coming on board late than never, against these crooks who have powerful political backing.
ReplyDeleteSoon Umno politicians will be coming out soon calling for the hide of Shahrizat,who is now deemed as a liability.They know that she is cooked,and they need to cut their losses.So they better have her out sooner than later.They know that the opposition have lots of targets for their cruise missiles to shot at.And their target is open corruption by the people who walk in the corridors of power.
The middle level players are coming out now,showing that they too are against dirty deals or corruption,leaving the real pros to do the finishing touches later.The sirens are screaming loud and clear that the GE is just around the corner.
OK, I will mention it.
ReplyDeleteNAZIR RAZAK
Dear Dato,
ReplyDeleteMalaysia has plenty of such cases. I think the recent "cow" business (NFL)is even worse, because it is plain scam to rob the rakyat's money without any toiling effort. They just skim off the profit and rear a few cows to dress the window.Yet there are UMNO MPS defending the wrong doers indefensibly. What a joke. As you have said, what is that to shout about! Look for the deal maker....
Bung Mokhtar tak akan berani sebut nama CEO CIMB. Sudah cukup untuk mulut dia kalau package holiday bagi dia dan isteri ke 2 di sumbat dalam kocek.
ReplyDeleteAla Sak, pura-pura tak tau pulak. Where got berani one those two.
ReplyDeleteCakap berdegar-degar kat Parlimen bolehah. Setakat tu je.
Takkanlah nak mention nama Hamman. Ooh itu sikit punya besar orang be.
Gona nak melawen? (slang orang Temerloh).
Those two nak tambah hayat mereka as MP. Nanti miss soru pulak.
And if you see, the two clowns are the noisiest in Parliament but who really gives a damn to them.
Kalau kena cangkoknya, they are already on the way to free flight passages anywhere at any time.
Bro Sak, if Rafidah and the overlord Tun M are agreeable to the MAS-Air Asia deal, who are we to say no.
Salam Dato'
ReplyDeleteTony Fernandes (Air Asia) parallels Vijay Mallya (Kingfisher) in outdoing extravagance.
Kingfisher is fast falling out of the sky but Air Asia will not!
Why not? Because the GOM will sure have to bail him out of the debts for extravaganza buying planes, EPL Club, Formula 1, etc he could never be able to repay.
Tony Fernandes (pisau 2 mata CIMB Czar) has sold the exit plan to Khazanah mangkuks that Vijay Mallya could never get to sell to the Indian Government.
My 10 cents guess for the 3rd man in the AAMAS deal is....jeng...jeng...
ReplyDeleteDato' Seri Mohd Nazir bin Tun Abdul Razak (born 1966) is a Malaysian banking executive. He is the managing director and chief executive of CIMB Group.
'Toni' but not toni fernandes."
"Putrajaya insisted last month it had “no choice” but to implement the controversial share swap....."
ReplyDeleteFinally, yes finally UMNO's frontline pitsbull just woke up? What took them so long?
They've been distracted for far too long and more interested in framing Anwar, accusing Mat Sabu a "communist" and beat the hell out of peaceful civil society in Bersih whose only demands were for 'Free and Clean Election' and they have been branded "threat to national security"?!!
Isn't it too little too late now?
Biasa-lah, the whole incompetent corrupt in this UMNO-led BN government, gone for the Hajj to beg forgiveness, unload their loads of sins before the next rompak!
Saya berani..Nazir Razak jawapannya.Banyak betul usaha percaturan korporat, merge sana, swap sini, listing sana, delisting sini yang dia akan ikut serta.Anyway Dato,good to hear from you again.Your brief disappearance makes me think if you are being called by umno or sb or mb pahang and being warned regarding felda issue.if i heard correctly,among all issues out there be it lembu,audit negara,murtad and so on,Felda issue is no 1 priority at bukit aman since it involve directly with abang nazir razak and touch many many undi in felda.basically if anything happen in felda undi,BN is doomed,even sabahan could not save BN..so i heard.maybe sabahan can help or not,im too lazy to count how many felda vs sabahan undi.Congratulations for fronting the anjing paid by Isa and i believe the anjing now demanding more payment to destroy you personally and politically.Hope there are more sensible umno person like you,who really fights for his bangsa,agama dan negara and ready to stand up at isa samad and his anjing anytime
ReplyDeleteWa salute sama lu Dato Sak..
ReplyDeletenizar?
ReplyDeletehaahahhahhaha....... small boylah!
go to seri kembanganlah brader.
Well put, Dato.
ReplyDeleteActually, Nazir is no match to Tony who can sell fridge to the eskimos, Disneyland to Walt Disney, Virgins to Richard Branson and MAS to Khazanah
The problem is not Tony, Nazir but the we, the smart Malaysians who did not wake up the sleepy leaders early enough.
The ship is sinking fast below:
http://mastroubleshooters.blogspot.com/2011/11/key-observations-and-recommendations-by.html
er Dato', AA is not a Ceyolnese. I think he is Goan Indian. On a whole, I notice a couple of things.
ReplyDeleteNumber one, after having observed you closely for several years, I get the perception that you are probably more anti Indian than the average Malaysian. Call it racism, call it personal bias, call it whatever.
Number two, the MAS AA deal did have some issues and conflict of interest, and sale of national asset, etc, etc, etc.
My conclusion: I think by criticizing the AA-MAS deal you could kill 2 birds with one stone. You could criticize the Gomen's obvious corporate short coming and at the same time blast Tony Fernandes due to your pet prejudices.
Bottom line, I think Malaysians are a racist lot, with each community having severe distrust of another community. As a Malay, being racist against Indians is just as identical as Indians being racist against Malays. End of the day - thats what Malaysians are . A bunch of racist folks deserving of the garbage leadership they get
The plot thickens, Dato. Kudos and keep it coming.
ReplyDeleteDato,what really cannot be understood are of scandals after scandals coming out involving Umno politicians,or people connected to them.There is not a few weeks between intervals for new episodes to be outed.We would have to conclude that there are some insiders leaking out these information.Like some Hollywood and Bollywood producer clones in the making.
ReplyDeleteSo near the GE and the Umnoputras still haven't got their house in order.Umno is like PKR,after all they are all clones of the same mentor.That is why they have the same mentality.Fight and rob among oneselves first.Then those left standing can fight with the enemies later.In the end it is about the politicians and their cronies pocket books.Either way the people will get the thorny end of the stick.
Dear Dato'
ReplyDeleteMalaysians are plagued by mind-blowing scandals and vicious scams. The ruling politicians are playing a game of cheats, greed and corruption. There emerged a pattern of scheme of carrying out the whole operations of robbing and cheating of the national coffer and they have mastered the art of shenanigans all alas in the name of national development for the benefit of the Rakyat. For politicians of the corridors of power, they will do the following standard operating plunder(sop):-
1) They will plan something (it will be much better if there is really such genuine project)out of nothing in the name of development.
2) Identify the project and get it approved. Once done, they will award the project without tender to their family members or close associates for a hefty price that will not usually happen in normal business dealing.
3) Irrespective of who will manage the project - by capable or incapable people will not be a primary concern as profit or no profit is no worry.
4) Once the project incurred huge losses (if by a stroke of luck profit has been made, this will spur their plan ruthlessly in the future), the government will then come in and mop up the shits with funds from PETRONAS, EPF and whatnot if you can think of, while the perpetrators getting away with it knowing well they will not get punished to fullest extent of the law. And also the ruling politicians will come to the culprit's defense. Why they do this it's all up to your imagination!
The above SOP will repeat again and again. Why? The simple reason is that the enforcer of the rules and laws of the country had also done the SOP sometime ago. The can of worms must be kept tight less the worms will worm out the dark secrets. So, the vicious cycle will repeat itself without ending. The idea of " making hay while the sun shines" has firmly fixed onto the minds of the people of the corridors of power. Each one of them must help each other out while in deep seas otherwise all will sink like the Titanic to the dept of the bottom of the ocean. Why should we do that? Isn't it that we are all in the happy wealthy family?
Datuk,dun forget the MAS VP and SVP byk menghabiskan duit,salah seorang SVP datang kerja dengan bodyguard sekali.....
ReplyDeleteSaya percaya Hamman makan keliling lah...why don't you start moving into Hamman's house....silap silap you will be able to write a book on Hamman....
ReplyDeleteGeorge Khoo , wrong to say just umno, also mca mic gerakan n others whom we had trusted to lead us
ReplyDeleteDear Sakmongkol
ReplyDeleteThere are very few Malaysian businessmen who earn international praise for what they have achieved in their spheres of business. Amongst these are two names – Tony Fernandez and Nasir Razak. One is respected world-wide for creating what is one of the largest, profitable low-cost carriers in a very short time, and the other for creating one of ASEAN’s fastest growing and most profitable banks. Air Asia rose like a phoenix from the ashes of a small, bankrupt local airline. CIMB was clobbered together from the ruins of Bank Bumiputra and Bank of Commerce. But instead of heaping praise on these two fine Malaysians you have joined a chorus of critics in condemning them.
Let no one for one minute think that CIMB got where it did today because its CEO is the brother of the PM. Nasir was already successful long before his brother got the top job. In this AA-MAS merger he played the role of a merchant banker, in conceiving the deal, and putting the parties together to buy into the merger plan. He was merely doing his professional job; we should respect that. He could not have forced both parties to dance together against their respective will. TF and Khazanah CEO are not stupid people.
There are however 3 things that should concern us. First, was there “foul play” involved, meaning was there insider trading or share price manipulation? This is being investigated, so we wait. Second, does the “merger” lead to a monopoly of sorts that will reduce competition and lead to higher fares? Has anyone referred this merger to the Anti-competition Commission? Third, I have always said that the government should get out of the airline business (and for that matter the car business). Governments have no role in a non-strategic business that should be the domain of private enterprise. In the case of MAS it has led to perennial losses. I don’t wish to see my tax money being channeled to save an inefficient, mismanaged, bleeding airline. If MAS ceased to exist tomorrow there are plenty of others that will cater to our travel needs at cheaper fares. National prestige should be expressed in a different way, not through a badly managed, loss-making airline. When Azman Mokhtar decided to go to bed with TF, it signaled that MAS needed a different game plan, but one that requires a complete revamp to the way it thinks, manages, buys and sells. Only a successful outsider could possibly serve as the change agent, and that was TF.
The big loud mouth Bung is now making noises simply because he did not get a slice of the AA-MAS pie. He is now hoping that AA-MAS-CIMB will grant him special privileges in exchange for him keeping quiet.
ReplyDeleteHamman... nama tuner BMW ajer!
ReplyDeleteBut tuner for AA and MAS is Nazir Razak!
huuu huu...
Focus should be on the financial and operational state of PMB , the majority shareholder of MAS. It has losses to the tune of 7bn ( excluding equity value write down of MAS investment). This AA MAS swap is a good deal. The only way to transform MAS is to bring in an outsider corporation with skin in the game. None of the BCG or McKinsey consultant types will sort the mess in MAS.
ReplyDeleteAside from Tune Air suffering temporary loss in equity value marks ( MAS at 140 instead of 160 ) : this is perhaps the only solution left for Khazanah , other than perhaps merging with Cathay or SIA or Qantas.
Having said the above , the message sent across the bow in appointment of AJ and Danny as CEO can only mean that KNB ( and by extension GOM ) isn't serious in transforming an ailing airline. Both aren't capable in getting this gig across the line. One is singularly focused to inflexible structures and the other is one of the architects of WAU that left PMB in a cesspool of losses.
The jury is still out : the fear,however is Tony F gets sick and tired and exercise his PUT as he walks out of the room.
Then whatever Emotional Equity left among Malaysians for MAS will be down to pretty much Zero.
As a taxpayer and equity holder of both corporations : my view is to close down MAS and grow AA.
MAS has sucked enough cash and energy from Malaysians over the years that burying it will be almost a National Service.
This link is on Felda listing:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tnt.net.my/Malaysia-Inc/felda-group/hiccup-for-felda-listing
Director General Dzulkilfli digs in, refuses to vacate top co-op post, chops top four candidates
You wrote: "I wrote about this sometime ago and I have been accused of pushing the racist angle because the owner of AA is one Ceylonese."
ReplyDeleteOn the matter of "racist angle", allow me to digress to another article of your, headlined "Clandestine secret society operating govt businesses" which I had just read at "free malaysia today". In that article, towards the end you wrote, (referring to Isa Samad):
"When he was MB for Negeri Sembilan, large tracts of leasehold land were given to certain non-bumi corporate figures and converted into freehold land."
By deliberating pointing out that those "corporate figures" were "non-bumi", my understanding is that what Isa samad did would have been OK to you if only those "corporate figures" had been "bumi".
Is that pushing the "racist angle"?