SHAH ALAM, August 19: PKR is concerned with the government’s attempt to privatise the Malaysian Airlines System (MAS), which will eventually be handed to cronies of Umno-BN leaders to make a quick buck.
Finally, when the airline suffers losses, public funds will used to ‘bail out’ MAS to save the cronies.
The PKR Chairman of the Trade and Investment Bureau, Wong Chen said that the privatisation exercise should not be done if studies find that MAS still can be saved by taking certain measures proposed by appointed auditors and business advisory professionals.
The government should conduct in-depth studies and analysis on whether the national carrier, Malaysia Airlines System Bhd (MAS) can still be saved before deciding to sell the company to a third party.
He said that analysis conducted by professional advisers and auditors is required to prevent MAS shares from falling into the wrong hands, as it did before.
“In principle, privatisation is good. But if it is sold to the wrong person and cronies such as (former MAS CEO) Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli, then that will be it, we will have to bail out once again.
“If it needs to be sold, we should correct the administration first by ensuring that the company can stand alone without support from the government,” he said when contacted.
“Privatisation should be done through an open tender, do not give it to Syed Mokhtar and its process should be strictly controlled, and before privatisation is done, auditors and professionals should be allowed to enter and reveal why MAS cannot succeed,” said Wong Chen who is also the Member of Parliament for Kelana Jaya.
Wong Chen added that the government should also monitor the flight fares so that they are at a reasonable level, and flight coverage in remote areas such as in Sabah and Sarawak should continue if the privatise MAS.
Previously, in a related development, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala in a statement suggested for the government to get out of the airline industry by selling MAS.
However, according to the President of the Malaysian Airlines Staff Employees Union (MASEU), Alias Aziz, he said that the proposal to sell MAS to a third party will not solve the problems of the company as a whole, instead the government should give autonomy to MAS in their management to save the company from being continuously plagued by financial problems.
For the record, in 2001, when Tajuddin assumed the post of CEO of MAS, the government was forced to bailout the national pride airline by buying back its shares at RM8 per share at a cost of RM8 billion when the actual market price was at RM3.68 per share.
The action eventually invited outrage from the people when they found out that at the same time, the government reduced the subsidies on essential goods and petrol.