When the rats are away, the cats come out to play.

When the rats are away, the cats come out to play.

Don’t expect any results to come out from the probe into Air Asia-Mas deal. We, find nothing amiss in the deal. We detect no insider trading. Pray tell, how you come to that conclusion? Because the people at MAS, AA and Khazanah promised us they did nothing wrong.

It was planned as far back as 2 years ago and we want to engage in some futile academic exercise to determine whether there is insider trading? When I asked the Oracle sometime back what he thought about the MAS-AA deal, he answered immediately- insider trading.

Malaysians are going to get suckered further. They are, this time by the gentle palliative coming from fearless and feistiest of AA supporters. Air Asia from Dr Mahathir who has been coopted into the Air Asia bandwagon. Asia X by that sans malice of a lady- Rafidah Aziz. They will give whatever Air Asia does from now on, a clean bill of health.

Emboldened, the fat cats at Air Asia group (that includes Asia X) are coming out to play, when the rats are away. No pun intended for the reverse order of the saying.

A few days ago, the CEO of Asia X laid blame on the government’s MAHB for delaying the construction of a new LCCT. When the idea for the construction of a new LCCT was mooted the last time, the construction was supposed to be done by Air Asia and Sime Darby. The idea was of course shot down by many quarters.

Can we imagine a spokesman from the private sector, whose ascend to the position he now occupies, is the result of the government's pleasure, is now castigating and censuring the government? That must the height of treachery. Off with his (bald) head!

Dr Mahathir was among the leading figures opposed to the construction of the lCCT at Labu at that time. We can guess the main reason for his opposition was his loathing for Abdullah Badawi and the fact that Sime Darby was chaired by the pain in his behind nemesis, Tun Musa Hitam. We all know Musa Hitam will defy Mahathir at any opportunity he has and his defiance remains something that Mahathir can never tolerate. He is now singing a different tune with the airtime given by Fernandes.

The cunning Fernandes has managed to turn over Mahathir faster than Anwar Ibrahim can do so. So, we find Dr Mahathir engaging in his own elegant silence over the new spirited attack on the government by the young ciku of a CEO of Asia X.

Here we have someone, who has benefited from the sweet charity of the government granting a lot of leeway to a business success story, feeling emboldened enough to take on the government. He is probably feeling even more reassured now that a possible competitor in the form of Firefly is literally extinguished. Asia X is now feeding off the spoils of a Khazanah directed palace coup.

It seems we can never win this once. Rafidah Aziz, recognized by many UMNO cerebrally challenged rank and filers as the economist’s economist is lecturing us all on the benefits of the cooperation between MAS and Air Asia. She’s lecturing us on the economics of economies of scale. Of course the cooperation will create those entire textbook economic benefits madam, if you say so.

But having those said by Rafidah Aziz, doesn’t mean they are true. The public will still be unmoved from their perception that the deal is a monopoly and preparation for the eventual swallowing of MAS by Air Asia.

It doesn’t excuse Khazanah and its affiliated advisers and match maker investment banker from initiating the eventual destruction of MAS. The deal between the two does not explain why MAS failed miserably given the fact that the much celebrated Sarawakian has re engineered and restructured MAS into a fighting form. What happened to all those measures taken by Jala? Have they come to naught?

The MAS-AA deal should now be regarded as an indictment on Jala and an exposure about his massive failure in trying to save MAS. Or could that object failure designed to be treated as justification for the MAS-AA deal?

If the deal was planned as far back as two years ago, the people behind the whole idea knew that Jala was doomed to fail. If people like Khazanah for example knew that Jala was bound to fail and they did nothing to intervene with the objective of saving MAS, then Khazanah is guilty of being an accomplice to an economic sting. It has been negligent in carrying out its duty to save our national carrier because if it’s aware of the impending failure on Jala’s part, it must mean, they have relevant information that could be used to save MAS.

They were not willing and didn’t want to because to do so, wasn’t money making.

Posted by sakmongkol AK47