MR. PM, CAN WE PLEASE STOP THIS NONSENSE?

7 REASONS WHY THE PRIME MINISTER SHOULD STEP IN NOW AND

FACILITATE KHAZANAH TO REVERSE THE SHARE SWAP

BETWEEN MAS AND AIR ASIA

1.            THE SHARE SWAP EXERCISE WAS AN OBVIOUS CONFLICT OF INTEREST

AND IF THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT SEE THAT, THEN WE HAVE SERIOUS GOVERNANCE ISSUES IN OUR INSTITUTIONS OF INVESTMENT.

Most citizens and all that are watching this fiasco know how seriously flawed the share swap deal is. For KHAZANAH and the government to try to justify its merits, is taking the rakyat for being fools and would further erode the confidence in the ruling government and its ability to make the right decisions. This will really test the resolve of the Prime Minister in making tough and correct decisions which would gain the respect of the people and augur well for the country in terms of its ability to admit wrongs and correct them.

2.      MAS WAS ‘PROFITABLE’ FOR 4 YEARS IN A ROW FROM 2007 – 2010 AND SO WAS AIR ASIA. WHY DO YOU NEED TO DO A KNEE JERK SHARE SWAP JUST BECAUSE THE FY2011 RESULTS WAS NOT POSITIVE?

The share swap was being done after the announcement of a bad 1^st half year results and was done in haste to supposedly save MAS. What is ironic is that MAS had reported ‘profits’ from year 2007 – 2010 and therefore if we were to use the profitability angle, why should KHAZANAH do this deal at all. The issue was of course of cash-flow and if we think that Air Asia was good then we have not read their accounts correctly. They too have cash-flow problems, if not now but in the very near future so it was obvious that this deal was done with knee jerk reaction and timed to take advantage of the reporting of bad results from MAS to undertake the share swap. It looks very sinister and opportunistic.

3.      IN ANY CORPORATE EXERCISE, THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE A COMPETITOR ON YOUR BOARD IS IF THE COMPETITOR PAYS MONEY TO ACQUIRE SHARES AND EITHER MERGES OR BUYS OVER A COMPANY VIA A FRIENDLY OR HOSTILE TAKEOVER.

KHAZANAH must be INSANE to think that to save MAS is to invite its ‘commercial enemy’ to come on its Board and be privy to all its trade secrets and strategies in order to help it. In business you either fight to outdo your competitors or exit the business if you cannot fight. Otherwise, in this case of MAS being a public listed company, either a friendly or hostile takeover of the company is done via the acquiring company mopping up shares from the stock market to a level where it can trigger a general offer. 

THIS HAS TO BE DONE BY WAY OF BUYING UP SHARES OF A CERTAIN PERCENTAGE IN CASH AND NEVER THROUGH A SHARE SWAP WHERE MANIPULATION AND COLLUSION CAN HAPPEN ESPECIALLY IN THIS CASE WHEN THE ACQUIRER AND THE ACQUIREE GOT TOGETHER SECRETLY TO NEGOTIATE A CORPORATE EXERCISE OF PUBLIC INTEREST.

Any sane person can see this is an injustice and abuse of process so IF KHAZANAH DOES NOT REVERSE THE SHARE SWAP, THE BIGGER IMPACT WILL BE THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC RAMIFICATIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT FOR NOT UNDOING THIS BAD DEAL.

4.  KHAZANAH HAS FAILED TO SAFEGUARD PUBLIC INTEREST. IF THE AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPERS CAN ADMIT A MISTAKE ON PRINTING AN ERRONEOUS REPORT, THAN FOR US TO BECOME A TRULY FIRST CLASS COUNTRY, KHAZANAH SHOULD ADMIT ITS MISTAKE ON THE SHARE SWAP AND REVERSE IT.

KHAZANAH has a duty to protect public funds and national net worth of the country. By continuing to press on, KHAZANAH has failed its duty and charter to the people who are relying on officers of the highest integrity to protect and enhance the country’s net worth and assets.

If the Australian press can admit their reporting mistakes and reverse or print a retraction, there is nothing wrong with KHAZANAH ADMITTING ITS MISTAKE AND REVERSING THE SHARE SWAP AND RETURNING THE ASSET TO THE PEOPLE OF MALAYSIA. By not doing so, when there is clear evidence of questionable intent, action and vested interest, shows we are moving towards being a banana republic where we can justify anything that we do whether right or wrong.

5.     KHAZANAH HAS CREATED A MAJOR INVESTMENT BLUNDER BY A CREATING A PRECEDENCE WHERE A NATIONAL ASSET CAN BE COMPROMISED AND IN ANY OTHER INCIDENT COMPROMISING A NATIONAL ASSET IS AN ACT OF TREASON.

What KHAZANAH has done is to create a dangerous precedence where an entrepreneur can acquire a national asset without having to put a single sen or RM on the table. If this is the case, since there are many, for example oil and gas entrepreneurs, can they come to the government and say that they want to swap 30% of their company for 10% of Petronas?

In any other deal once an entity is classified as a national strategic asset, it cannot be owned by individuals or entrepreneurs.  

6.      IT IS TIME FOR THE COUNTRY TO APPOINT TRUE PROFESSIONALS TO RUN COMPANIES AND STOP THE ‘4^TH FLOOR BOYS MENTALITY’ AND RESTORE CORPORATE ORDER IN GLCS BY NOT HAVING ANYMORE PARACHUTE CEOS AND YOUNG UPSTARTS RUNNING OUR NATIONAL ASSETS.

In order for the country to progress, every sector of industry must be run by professionals who have invested their time and energy to be the best in their industry. They should be promoted within their industry where they obtained the seat of power by garnering and earning the respect of their peers, staff and industry watchers. True successful companies globally invest heavily on succession planning to ensure the best from within them rises to the top to lead their ‘troops’ into the ‘ commercial wars’.

We have to stop parachuting individuals into so many GLC CEO positions that caused a whole generation of professionals to be bypassed by this practise. Most if not all of the current young upstarts come from either rich families or ‘academic’ background and have little appreciation of what happens in the engine room of most industries. They will impose their ideas not through sound and tested innovations, but by abusing the power of their positions as they will hide their lack of knowledge through coercion. These parachute CEOs have no track record in the industry.

IF THE GOVERNMENT IS INTERESTED TO KNOW WHY THERE IS A BRAIN DRAIN IN THE COUNTRY, THIS IS A MAJOR CAUSE OF IT, I.E. WHEN TRUE PROFESSIONALS CAN BE BYPASSED AND USURPED BY OTHERS WHO DO NOT HAVE THE CREDENTIALS IN THEIR INDUSTRY.

7.        KHAZANAH SHOULD STOP MEDDLING IN OPERATIONAL COMPANIES WHEN THEY HAVE NO CLUE AND ARE INCOMPETENT TO MAKE DECISIONS.

KHAZANAH needs to stop making incompetent decisions, period. Meddling in operational issues when you have already appointed a CEO whose day to day work is to eat and breathe the company that they are leading is tantamount to undermining corporate hierarchy. Should a change of strategy be needed then a change of CEOs would do the trick but make sure you select someone from within the industry who would have no excuse for underperforming if chosen.

What is practised in global corporate operations is that they could have a diverse BOARD OF DIRECTORS that are entrusted to serve the best interest of the company and asking the right questions and sharing cross industry experience in order to ensure check and balance on management actions and recommendations.

Ripping Off Malaysia Airlines

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2012

Ripping Off Malaysia Airlines

Source: http://syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.com/2012/02/ripping-off-malaysia-airlines.html

Do you recall this news last year ?

MAS, Qantas set to forge closer ties

• Malaysia Airlines and Qantas Airways Ltd are holding talks on closer partnership in the run-up to the national carrier joining the One World Alliance, sources said yesterday.
• “Talks are ongoing regarding a more comprehensive relationship with the airline (Qantas). The plan is to have something in place before the One World programme kicks in,” an industry source told Business Times.
• It is understood that the initiative is part of a wider plan to revive the fortunes of the national carrier. For the nine months ended Aug 30, 2011, MAS suffered a pre-tax loss of RM1.2 billion against a pre-tax profit of RM23.73 million in the same period a year ago.
• The market has been abuzz with the posibility of a MAS-Qantas tie-up

First of all I suspected something was seriously not right with this proposal. Why would a gwailoh airline like Qantas from Australia suddenly want to form partnerships with Malaysians? Especially when MAS itself was suffering losses of RM1.2 billion? There can only be one reason. Do read on.

I also suspected that some "con"-sultan must have thought up this idea and sold it to the same GLC dunggus who got liwatted by the Arabs and Sri Lankans over the Medini fiasco. Ini mesti lagi satu round cerita "GLC bodoh" kena liwat oleh con-sultan.

Well folks, here is the reason. Qantas Airlines is also facing financial difficulty. They have been losing money big time. Here is the news:

• "Qantas on Thursday reported an 83 per cent slump in half-year profit due to rising fuel costs and $194 million in losses related to the two-day grounding of its fleet last year.
• THE jobs of 1460 Qantas maintenance workers, including up to 400 in Brisbane, will be put under review today as the airline announces hundreds of cuts in other areas of its business.
• Qantas is also expected to announce the loss of hundreds of staff in other areas, including flight and back-office roles, as it scraps unprofitable routes.
• Qantas, which announced 1000 job losses last year, says the heavy maintenance jobs will not be moved offshore, despite union fears work could be shipped to Singapore, the Philippines, China and Hong Kong.

Qantas is making losses. MAS is making losses. So why would Qantas want to approach MAS (versus say SIA or Garuda or Thai Airways who also operate in this region) for a partnership?

They wont come unless they smell money - the bottomless pit of Malaysian taxpayers money which is being burned by the GLCs. MAS is a GLC. As always the 'con'-sultans will advise the GLCs to pump more taxpayers money into the business.

Not only Qantas is in financial trouble, the Australian low cost carrier Air Australia just left their passengers stranded in Phuket and grounded all their planes. Here is the story :

• Air Australia and its administrator were in discussions well before the airline ran out of money.
• 4000 of Air Australia’s customers are now being told to make their own way home after it went broke in the early hours of this morning.                               (Editor's note: Sound and look familiar?)
• The break point is claimed to have been the refusal of a jet fuel supplier to refuel an Air Australia flight from Phuket to Melbourne last night   

Let me give some free advice to MAS. Please dont listen to your 'con'-sultans if they advise you to form any alliances or tie ups with Air Australia ok. The airline has gone bust.

Further reading:

http://mastroubleshooters.blogspot.com/2012/02/national-tragedy.html

A NATIONAL TRAGEDY

On 9 February 2012, former MAS Executive Vice President Dr. Mohamadon Abdullah wrote;

Malaysia Airlines grew from a small Domestic & Regional Carrier to a major player in Airline Premier League. Engineering developed from a Line Maintenance Facility to become a major Aircraft Overhaul Facility in the region (initially supported by expatriate staff but ultimately replaced by Malaysians, through a structured Nationalization programme). Flight Catering operated from a small flight kitchen and became a preferred Catering Supplier. Flight Operations has been recognized as one the best in the world and our Pilots are in great demand, due to a rigid technical training and human factors programmes. There are many more areas that we can really be proud of. Management Succession Plan was emplaced. All these were destroyed in 1994 as a result of the so called “restructuring” and the “virtual airline” concept. I recall 254 years of engineering “experience” were cast aside by just a stroke of a pen. Malaysia Airlines Academy was planned to be a Centre of excellence but now has become “Manipal University”.

Today, MAS has engaged many foreign expertise either through direct recruit or through “Consulting” services (which result in $$$$$ outflow).  Credit and recognition must be given to the pioneer Leaders who took the airline from operating BN2s, F27 and B737-200 to the modern fleet of B747s, B737s, B777s, DC-10s and Airbus series.

Now a foreigner who has no inkling of why MAS was established and has developed (and never gone through the pains of the early years) has been appointed an Advisor. Imagine, a foreign Company is providing Catering Services at Malaysia’s major Aviation Hub.

What a JOKE after 55 Years of Independence! Where is that Malaysian Pride? It is indeed a NATIONAL TRAGEDY.

Earlier on 22 Sept 2011, former MAS Managing Director Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman wrote;

I have just read your article (here) and would like to add my views. I am of the view that the air transport industry in the country has over the years been mired by wrong government decisions and periodical mismanagement by the operators.

The current state of affairs of MAS has been caused by:

(i)         Some 15 years ago MAS management was messed up and the very fabric of its operation was destroyed and until now it has not been fully revived despite efforts being made to revive it.

(ii)        The situation has been compounded by the wrong decisions of the government to allow Air Asia to operate on domestic and regional routes in the beginning and later on long haul  routes without any proper study on the impact.

(iii)       The authorities failed to appreciate the role and responsibilities of a National Carrier and wrongly placed MAS to compete against a private low cost carrier. It should be noted that it was wrong to convert Air-Asia’s license from international routes not operated by MAS into domestic routes without any study on the impact.

(iv)       Those concerned have failed to appreciate that Malaysia’s air transport premier travel market is very small and that the market is very ‘price sensitive.

There is no way that MAS can compete against Air Asia. Up to now I must say that ‘Nasi hampir jadi bubur’. If they carry out their proposed scheme I confirm that ‘ Nasi terus jadi bubur’. I am surprised that so many clever people cannot under stand simple arithmetic.

You may distribute my comments to the members of your network.

With kind regards,

Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman.

A TEST FOR MAS NEW MANAGEMENT.

In continuation of the previous post http://mastroubleshooters.blogspot.com/2011/12/

below is the follow up from the same MAS employee as reproduced from 

http://weechookeong.wordpress.com/2012/01/26

anonymous on January 31, 2012 at 7:48 am

Back to the internal woes in MAS and my earlier posting on Dec 17, also picked up by troubleshooters, the Head of HC has finally resigned, and is leaving exactly ONE day after her announcement. For such a senior position, a one day exit with no handover to anyone raises two questions – is the position redundant to start with? and what happened to the ‘Talent List’ and much-touted-but- never-seen succession plan? Simply confirms my observation that the rot in MAS starts and ends with the PEOPLE issue.

Now let’s all spend the next week or so speculating, theorising , gossiping and watching the horsetrading going on. After 30 years, the heads of HR that have come and gone, all lived up to our expectations of botching up in one way or another, all victims to the legacy issues, and none with the gumption/guts/principles to right the blatant wrongs for fear of rocking their own cushy boats.

The next one will be no different. He/she is expected to recycle the same stale wine into even staler bottles, repackaging the bottles with new labels like “Transformation Wave 1 or 2 or 3″ but until the stale and incompetent politicking goons in HC are kicked out, NOTHING is going to change.

MAS is doomed. >>>>

Well done, anon.  

MAS employees must now function as the “check and balance” and safety net.

I personally have triggered the alarm way back in February 2003 but as I suspected they “do not seem to be doing the right things and quite evidently they do not know the right things to do.”

Below is an extract of my report that was personally delivered to MAS top management including a former MD and former Chairman. Consider below as a test for the current new Management.

“Based on a series of investigation, study and event that have unfolded, out of plain responsibility, I would like to raise my concerns on MAS decision makers that we may be living in an unhealthy and disturbing culture whereby:

1.         We take problems for granted.

2.         We fail to analyze the real underlying issues and thus not able to provide professional solutions

3.         We tend to defer important issues and failed to put first thing first preferring to continue prescribing quick fixes and firefighting instead of fire prevention.

4.         We tend to contain main issues, buying time, with the hope that the issues may miraculously go away or at the very least, the individual who raised it will be frustrated, fed up and eventually give up.

5.         We are slow to act and react; we tend to condone many malpractices especially among the management. We have been led to believe that if we expose these malpractices, we are backstabbing our own friends and colleagues. We failed to recognise the fact that if we do not correct and instead choose to ignore the issues, we are actually backstabbing and betrayed the trust given by the nation and the public (staff)

6.         The true professionals and leaders were not given the due recognition and credit they deserve. The non-performers (yes man) are rewarded whereas the performers are sidelined simply because their superiors felt threatened by their able subordinates.

7.         Many have been exposed albeit ineffectively on various course such as leadership, communication, financial, management etc. What really missing is the very basic skills of learning which is analytical, comprehension, expression, interpretation and research skills

8.         We tend to tolerate our own incompetence, giving too many chances when what seriously lacking is a dose of proper lessons

9.         We tend to penalize those who defy, those who had guts in exposing our own incompetence and malpractices.

10.       We tend to be ignorant of the huge responsibilities that MAS has to shoulder and our inaction could jeopardize many lives including our loved ones.

11.       MAS Management acutely lack professionals who can provide solutions to the needs and problems and leaders who solve problem others fear.

12.       In summary, we do not seem to be doing the right things and quite evidently we do not know the right things to do.

MORE TO COME!