MAS still need him, says union

(NST) SUBANG JAYA: Datuk Seri Idris Jala should stay with Malaysia Airlines as he still has a lot of unfinished business, its employees' union said.

Malaysian Airlines System Employees' Union (Maseu) executive secretary Mustafar Maarof said Idris was not even halfway through the airline's Business Transformation Plan 2 (BTP2).

"We are in a recovery process and this is not a good time to pull him out," he said yesterday.

About 10 union representatives were also present to voice their disappointment over the sudden announcement of the appointment of Idris as a minister without portfolio in the Prime Minister's Department.

Mustafar said the BTP2, initiated by Idris, was a five-year project beginning last year which targets an annual profit of RM2 billion to RM3 billion by 2012.

He said Idris has also been concentrating on issues which included foreign workers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and outsourcing.

"This is an aviation industry and on top of it, this is a national carrier. We are not selling pisang goreng.

"How are we to run the business if we keep changing CEOs overnight?"

Mustafar added that the employees were baffled over the frequent change of CEOs as they had had three different CEOs in 10 years.

He said Idris' contract had been extended for three years, from last year to 2011, and he should stay until then.

Maseu would appeal to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to allow Idris to continue leading MAS even if only for another year.