GOODBYE, MAS ...

I have fond memories of covering MAS when I was a reporter with Business Times.

I go for each and every MAS assignment – big or small, with or without a business angle to the story – and is seen at the MAS Building at Jalan Sultan Ismail almost every other day that the then MD Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman asked, “Don’t you have your own office?”

He was the most accessible MD. Phone calls to his office never go unanswered. His secretary vetted all calls but I have never had my phone calls to him barred. Also, she’ll call back if he was busy to take the call or if he was in a meeting.

I had many exclusives on MAS – some came from the airline itself, others were sources from within the airline and the aviation industry.

I can remember two.

The first was about Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli seeking RM8 per share, or RM1.67 billion, for Naluri Bhd's 29.9 per cent stake in the airline. When I received word of it, I sent in some questions to my well-placed contact in the Finance Ministry. It was on a Friday. I told him with or without confirmation I was going to run the story on Monday. I knew my informant had first-hand information but I needed to hear it from my ministry’s contact.

At noon on Saturday while having lunch with my cousins at Madam Kwan’s KLCC, I received a phone call from my contact. “You have a pen and paper with you? Write this down,” he said. I got a pen but no paper. I wrote the information on the restaurant’s paper napkin. I remembered sending him eight questions. He answered all of them.

I wrote the story for the Monday publication. I received a phone call very early in the morning from an MAS contact, asking me where I sourced the information from. It seemed that I had created such a furore in MAS with that story. Unofficially, I was told I was “persona non grata” at MAS. I wasn’t rattled by it. I could still get my exclusives without having to go to the MAS building.

Another exclusive was about a US$1 billion EXIM Bank loan to MAS to finance aircraft it ordered. I was at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) show during that time that I got wind of the EXIM Bank loan. I landed the story after I did a little bit of snooping among industry officials who were at LIMA and actually had it confirmed by a well-placed source.

That article earned me a two-hour “lecture” on the phone by a nasty MAS director, who questioned my race (“You’re Malay, right?) and religion (“Orang Islam, kan? Faham apa itu fitnah?”) Yes, what has race got to do with it? And how is it “fitnah” when the story is true? I kept quiet while he was ranting. At the end of it, I challenged him to deny the story if it wasn’t true. He didn’t take up the challenge.

Although I was covering aviation, I didn’t get to travel with the airline that often. I flew with them only once on assignment. It was to London when there was an issue about their fuel load. That was an educational trip for me actually. I got to talk to the pilots in the cockpit. They showed me how to read the fuel load and other instrumentation on the aircraft.

That assignment also showed us how prepared our pilots were for any situation. We were in a thunderstorm as we approached Heathrow. The pilot circled above Heathrow twice in an attempt to land. The second time, the wing tip of the B744 was struck by lightning. The Concorde flying below us abandoned Heathrow for Manchester instead. We landed safely after the third attempt.

I can say that it was the best times of my journalism career covering aviation especially MAS.

As I rose the ranks within the company (through promotions and re-designations), I had to delegate the beat to other reporters but I still kept a keen interest on MAS as I still have contacts within the company and the industry.

I cringed watching the daily “live” press conferences on the missing jetliner. There were so many questions that I wanted to ask MAS and other officials. I knew Ahmad Jauhari Yahaya from his days with NST but never got the opportunity to interview him as the MAS boss.

It is sad to be reading about MAS today. It is heart-breaking.

There are many good people in the company; those who have spent their lives building the MAS brand that we Malaysians were proud of. It is sad to see them go.

A foreigner is now running the airline. I was chastised for writing a piece on the possibility of a foreign CEO for MAS before the government found Idris Jala for the post. I received emails and SMSes, from politicians and corporate figures alike, telling me that we were not short of local candidates to helm the national carrier.

So far, Christoph Mueller has gotten his way to restructure the airline. He has the go ahead to cut routes and axe some 6,000 staff; a plan that could have been executed under previous managements but wasn’t carried out because of … well, you know.

I was told there will be a new name and livery for the national airline. 

Just look at Sony, Nike and AirTran. Who remembers them as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, Blue Ribbon Sports and Valujet respectively?

It may just work for the better for the new airline, along with all the other changes that Mueller has in mind.