Rafizi should stick to counting cows and stop counting planes

By MT Webmaster Last updated Oct 18, 2017

Anyway, in the first place MAS is not buying 75 new aircraft at RM53 billion like what Rafizi alleged. MAS is leasing the aircraft. And if Rafizi does not know why lease the aircraft and not buy them then he needs to go back to school before trying to teach MAS how to run an airline. Cowherds should never try to teach brain surgeons how to perform brain surgery. They should stick to counting cows, which is what they know best.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In a blog posting on 2nd October 2017 Rafizi Ramli went into great detail about Malaysia’s national airlines, MAS, ‘wasting’ RM53 billion buying 75 new aircraft. While the major airlines all over the world are bringing in the latest in technology and are leading the airline business, Rafizi wants MAS to fly World War II aircraft.

From cows to Kajang to planes: Rafizi is a Jack-of-all-trades but master of none

For an English-educated person like Rafizi we would expect he would know the meaning of penny-wise-pound-foolish. Nowadays when people book their flight they want to know what aircraft they will be flying on. If it is an antique plane with no internet and so on then no thank you. Why do you think people prefer flying Emirates dan airline-airline yang sewaktu dengannya?

Emirates has 244 Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft and they are waiting for the delivery of another 262 planes valued at US$120 billion. That comes to about 500 planes worth about RM1 trillion. Let me repeat that: ONE TRILLION RINGGIT. And Rafizi wants to quibble over a mere RM53 billion?

Anyway, the planes are not being acquired all in one go but will be spread out over time. And they are actually not to increase the present fleet but to replace those planes which the leases are about to expire and will be sent into ‘retirement’. And when you retire old planes you need to replace them with new ones or else you will end up with an airline with no planes to fly.

Then there is the increase in incoming and outgoing tourists to cater for (READ: KLIA will likely rank among top 10 busiest airports in 2018). The KL International Airport is the 14th busiest airport in the world and last year it handled 53 million passengers, 70% of them international passengers. So not only are more foreign tourists coming to Malaysia but more Malaysians are going overseas for their holidays as well (what was that again about Malaysians are very poor?). So should MAS not take advantage of this increase in air travel instead of allowing others to take the business?

This is a competitive world and the airline business is a competitive industry (even in Pakatan Harapan there is so much competition as to who wants to be the Menteri Besar of Selangor and Prime Minister-in-waiting that until today they cannot announce who their PM-designate is). The airline business is so competitive that unless you offer passengers the latest and the best you can forget about getting their business.

This is why Emirates and not MAS gets the business

Rafizi should stop thinking like a kampung Malay from Kemaman and speak to his friends in DAP. Then he will know that money makes money. Rafizi has enjoyed life as what DAP would label ‘a Malay on crutches enjoying the benefits of the NEP’ that he does not understand the meaning of competition. Even after he graduated he did not need to compete to find a job and was offered a comfortable job in Petronas that allowed him so much free time on a high salary just because he happens to be Malay.

To Rafizi everything is about politics. And cheap politics at that too. When air travellers book their flight tickets they do not ask about your religious beliefs or political leaning. They want to know what planes you fly. And unless MAS can keep up with the main players (we are not yet even talking about overtaking them) then sayonara MAS.

If you listen to Rafizi (meaning do not buy new planes but fly old WWII aircraft), MAS is going to end up a disaster just like his ‘Kajang Move’ that eventually resulted in the death of Pakatan Rakyat. And then, after Pakatan Rakyat was killed off by the ‘Kajang Move’, they formed Pakatan Harapan like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes and made an even bigger mess. They were in such a bad shape they were forced to invite Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to join them to help ‘save’ the opposition coalition. And Mahathir is now killing the opposition even faster.

Imagine the United States inviting Osama Bin Laden to become its President? That is what has happened to Pakatan Harapan. This is like the farmer, after half his chickens have been killed by the fox, goes to meet the fox to ask it to come help guard his chickens.

Yes, that is Rafizi Ramli. He cannot even manage his own affairs and he wants to appoint himself the MAS consultant to advise them on how to run an airline. This is like a cowherd trying to advise a brain surgeon on how to perform brain surgery. Does this Rafizi have no shame?

And it was Mahathir who destroyed MAS and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak who has been trying to salvage it and save it from bankruptcy. Read this 2nd September 2002 article, ‘Malaysian Airlines to Sell Off Assets as Part of Restructuring’, to understand how Mahathir practically bankrupted MAS (READ HERE ).

When Mahathir ‘sold’ MAS to Tajudin Ramli (actually it was a fake sale meant to show a ‘paper profit’) it was cash-rich with almost RM1 billion in reserves and by the time the government bought back the company it had a RM7 billion hole. So that was RM8 billion down the drain or, as Mahathir is fond of saying, disappeared into thin air.

Khazanah Nasional Bhd released its roadmap to save Malaysia Airlines. Titled ‘Rebuilding a National Icon – The MAS Recovery Plan’, it contains 12 key steps that will have to be undertaken in the course of the rescue effort. (READ HERE)

If Rafizi wants to know how and why his boss, Mahathir, bankrupted MAS then let us give him a hint. Mahathir bankrupted MAS so that he can hide the fact that Bank Negara lost RM31.5 billion gambling on the forex market. And Rafizi can also go and ask Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minster-in-waiting, Lim Kit Siang, about this RM31.5 billion forex loss that in the end bankrupted MAS — since the old Chinaman has been speaking about this matter for more than 20 years and has a PhD in ‘The RM31.5 billion Bank Negara forex losses’.

Rafizi talks so much but he refuses to mention the fact that MAS is in trouble because of Mahathir, and not because of Najib, and because Mahathir needed to hide the RM31.5 billion that Bank Negara lost. And why drag Habibul Rahman Kadir Shah into this whole thing? What has he got to do with the whole issue? Is Rafizi trying to insinuate that Habibul is the CEO of MAS? Maybe Rafizi missed the news about who the MAS CEO is. And Board of Directors decisions are never a one-man show like in the days of Mahathir, Rafizi’s boss, who rode roughshod over everyone and made sure that his sole will prevailed.

Anyway, in the first place MAS is not buying 75 new aircraft at RM53 billion like what Rafizi alleged. MAS is leasing the aircraft. And if Rafizi does not know why lease the aircraft and not buy them then he needs to go back to school before trying to teach MAS how to run an airline. Cowherds should never try to teach brain surgeons on how to perform brain surgery. They should stick to counting cows, which is what they know best.