MAS revamp should be free of political, government interference - Chua

The ongoing restructuring of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) should be free of political or government interference, with no special consideration either for anyone, says Tan Sri Dr Chua Soi Lek.

The former Health Minister and MCA president, said that by the same token, MAS employees and their unions must get used to the idea that should the massive revamp of the ailing airline fail, most Malaysians would "just give up on it."

"They are not going to fly MAS anymore. I am one of those loyal ones flying MAS all the time. But people come and tell me, they support MAS this time. But if the restructuring fails for whatever reason, they would just give up on the airline.

"They must be aware that people have a choice today," he told Bernama.

Dr Chua said this when asked to comment on the business transformation plans of MAS' new chief executive officer, Christoph Mueller.

Among other things, it entails state of the art facilities, staff retraining and an upgrading of business procurement contracts as well as for the 14,000 employees who are being re-employed to work in the airline, to adjust to a different set of work culture on par with global standards.

He pointed out that all business plans were necessarily good but the acid test would be in the implementation, and in the context of Malaysia, it was time to end the culture of political or government interference in such plans.

He said another reason why MAS rarely made money was its operating costs which is known to be way above industry norms, coupled with bloated fringe benefits for employees.

Citing an example, Dr Chua said MAS' cabin crew flying into London at night were given a two nights and three days break, while staying at a very expensive five-star hotel.

"Can you imagine... You work for 13 hours and you get two nights and three days off in a five-star hotel? No airline can afford that," he added.

He said it was only right for MAS to introduce new terms and conditions of service in the collective agreement (CA) for its employees, given the prevailing harsh market conditions for the aviation industry and that no CA should be carved in stone.

Dr Chua said basically, MAS had previously failed to evolve in accordance with the transformation taking place among global airlines.

"MAS is what we call, running a missed business model of the 20th century in the 21st century environment. It did well in the 1980's with cash reserves of RM5 billion but has a deficit today.

"At the same time, MAS has easily taken government money to the tune of RM20 billion or RM30 billion due to all the restructurings over the years," he added.

On what Mueller faced in turning around MAS, Dr Chua said Malaysians are unused to the idea of a local chief executive officer being replaced by a foreigner.

But, he added, the German, possessed the right credentials for the job although," restructuring MAS is not a walk in the park and was going to be very, very tough".

"He needs all the support from the government, the staff, the unions and even from passengers, to succeed," Dr Chua said.