NOT long ago, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said ministers and government officials tended to send their children to international schools abroad.
After making this somewhat embarrassing statement (to the government), he commented on Malaysia Airlines’employment of a foreigner as its CEO, saying: “If so, why not elect an orang putih as Prime Minister?”
Dr Mahathir’s statement is, of course, not directed at the people but the government.
Whatever one may say about the former premier’s remarks, he is plainly shifting the drama from the recent Umno General Assembly to the media. The psychological effect of the move is, of course, much more effective and intense, coming, as it did, from a former PM and Umno president.
Dr Mahathir’s words can be summed up in his famous slogan during his 22 years in office – Malaysia Boleh.
In his time as prime minister, Dr Mahathir had always been straightforward and frank with his comments and not afraid to call a spade a spade.
But when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Najib Razak took office, there were questions asked as to whether their predecessor’s outspokenness on their performance as the nation’s top executive was at variance with the old Chinese saying – “when one does not hold office, one does not govern.”
It has to be admitted though that Dr Mahathir has criticised his successors not because of any serious contradictions between the political ideologies of Abdullah and Najib but because of the uneven distribution of resources.
Moves to win over national resources by arranging contacts, supporting cronies and through government-owned corporations naturally invited criticisms.
During an Umno General Assembly, the party even requested that each state-owned company must make way for two executive seats to be allocated to party members. MCA and MIC could only stand by and watch.
Aer Lingus Airlines CEO Christoph Mueller was appointed the new CEO of Malaysia Airlines.
The national carrier aims to accelerate its restructuring and make aturnaround. From the perspective of meritocracy, the government’s move in this matter is popular among the capital market.
MAS which suffered from two consecutive tragedies and billions in losses, has to undergo substantial re-organisation in order to get back into profitability again.
Billions have been spent to rescue a seriously “injured” state-owned enterprise and as such, the process calls for public transparency.
Admittedly, MAS has been incurring losses since the Mahathir era. It is a chronic illness. It could be said Abdullah and Najib inherited the problem. Thus, pointing fingers, especially at Najib alone, is clearly unfair.
Malaysia Boleh? Of course, there are talented people in Malaysia. The “everyone can fly” Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes is one example.
However, he too has to contend with powerful politicians and can only hope to strike gold in Indonesia.
Years back, Air Asia was already prepared to merge with MAS. There was hope at the time that Fernandes might be able to cure MAS’ chronic illness.
Unexpectedly, MAS staff rallied and objected, fearing Fernandes’ appointment would cause 6,000 people to lose their jobs.
In the end, Fernandes was out of the picture. But, years later, after MAS suffered two catastrophic tragedies, the government was forced to hire an “orang putih” as CEO.
Dr Mahathir certainly did voice out the intention of certain quarters to monopolise MAS.
However, having an “orang putih” as Malaysia Airlines CEO is actually not a bad thing. Similar to Japan, after Nissan suffered huge losses and appointed an “orang putih” CEO – Carlos Ghosn – to rescue the dying enterprise, the company made a successful turn-around and Carlos’ feat became a legend.
One can say MAS is mimicking what Nissan has done but Mueller will definitely face political pressure in his efforts to return MAS to the black. It is a big task and by no means an easy one. This much has to be acknowledged.
Whether Mueller will succeed as MAS CEO when others in the past had failed remains to be seen. Perhaps, we should give him the opportunity to prove his mettle in guiding MAS out of turbulent times for the sake (and survival) of the national carrier. (From Oriental Daily).