I refer to the letter from Restless Native suggesting that Pak Lah travel Singapore International Airlines to prove that Malaysia Airlines is slipshod. I am a regular first-class traveler on Singapore Airlines and am on the 'Solitaire' tier of their loyalty programme, and so I think I speak with some experience when I suggest to Restless Native that it is highly unlikely that Pak Lah is capable of getting better service on Singapore Airlines.

The quality of inflight service that other airlines arguably talk about is really a touch-and-go experience. If Pak Lah wanted to fly to Tokyo, for example, on some Singapore Airlines flights he will get a leather seat with full recline and with in-seat power supply so that he could either rest comfortably or plug in his laptop and clear some very important state work on such a long flight.

On other flights on the same route, he will be in an old aircraft where the seats do not recline fully and there is no in-seat power supply all for the same fare. At least on Malaysia Airlines, the service would be a bit more consistent and he will not have to worry about being disappointed.

As prime minister with a heavy schedule, his personal assistant will have a nightmare trying to get through by telephone to SIA's call centre to book or alter flight schedules outside of normal office hours. She or he will be made to wait anything between 15 minutes and one hour, and if he gets upset, he will be warned 'Can't you see, we are all very busy?' Pizza Hut would go bankrupt if they kept customers waiting anything more than three minutes for a RM20 pizza.

But because of the wrong perception it enjoys in the marketplace, Singapore Airlines does not need to care for someone like Pak Lah who would be paying anything between RM4,000 and RM30,000 for a first-class ticket to Hong Kong or London respectively.

Of course, it would be different if Pak Lah were Lee Kuan Yew. As a first class passenger, if I got a phone call from Singapore Airlines to check in up to four hours earlier, that is almost always a signal that The Man himself will be on the same flight. Some passengers, if we can help it, would immediately ask for a change to another flight because honestly, it can be very uncomfortable being in the same cabin with this great icon of our times and a very highly-strung crew that is not focused on serving others.

I did not quite understand Restless Native's point about Lee Kuan Yew's moral high ground of not having a state-owned private aircraft. Where would he go, even if he had one? From what I understand, the instances when he did need a private jet, he had been a guest of other famous people in the region, notably the Sultan of Brunei.

I do not say this in a cynical manner, because the schedules of people in his position can be difficult enough to justify arrangements that even Singapore Airlines can't provide. Let's not discuss this matter as if the more important people in our society should live like the rest of us in order to be legitimate. They don't and they can't.

Malaysia Airlines would be different. Naturally, as prime minister of Malaysia, he would be entitled to a bit more attention on his home country's airline. Most likely, other premium passengers will be unaware that Pak Lah is scheduled to be on board.

But more likely, the flight will be delayed by as much as four hours as it waits for his entourage to arrive. Sometimes, it would even make an unscheduled stop to pick up these people from cities it does not normally fly to. Nobody will be happy, but Malaysia Airlines would have accommodated our VIPs, while the rest of the passengers mumble to themselves that 'Malaysia Boleh'.

The fact that Singapore Airlines reported such a strong third-quarter operating profit (S$306 million) just last week should have alerted someone in the industry that it is cashing in on a need that is not being sufficiently met today. There are many very busy people putting up with the arrogance of Singapore Airlines because there are currently no practical alternatives.

All the scenarios I have mentioned above are real ones that I have experienced personally. The stage is already set in this region for a private jet business to keep the Singapore Airlines of this world honest. The private jet business has already taken off in large countries like India and China.

I think there is a strong business case for a Malaysian businessmen to own private jets and lease them to people like Pak Lah. I agree that the money should not come from state funds. Technically, a private jet business can actually be profitably owned by Malaysia Airlines or AirAsia. If nobody in Malaysia takes up my idea quickly enough, I am sure Temasek or Singapore Airlines might, except that not many people realise that Singapore is not as fast with new ideas as Malaysia.

A commercially run private jet business actively used by someone in power like Pak Lah can persuade him to push through new types of open sky arrangements for private jets to fly freely between Asean and other countries in the region. We can't fight the egos of important people, but we live in an age where we should be focusing our energies on making them accountable and profitable for the rest of society.

Finally, arguments by other writers on this topic that Pak Lah should not spend money on this one luxury just because we have poorly paid policemen, overcrowded schools and expensive infrastructure are not grounded in fact. We are a country that is fully capable of meeting these needs and the people in power know this. The rest of us just have to come to terms with the fact that we are a highly-politicised country and any need that gets met has to have political patronage.

In this regard, we are no different from highly developed countries like the US. Our politicians have figured out the patronage process for building tall buildings and new cities. They have assigned the patronage for health care and education to the private sector. Somebody needs to tell our police force that they are currently nobody's political child. In this regard, neither Lee Kuan Yew's book nor Singapore Airlines exist to be instructive for us.