AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani’s outburst against Malay-language daily Utusan Malaysia is merely his personal opinion, the company’s chairperson Rafidah Aziz reportedly said.

NONE “What he had done was his own views, but his statement is inappropriate because it involved company policy. His personal views have nothing to do with AirAsia X,” Utusan Malaysia reported Rafidah ( right ) as saying today, which in turn quotes a report on online news portal The Mole .

Azran had taken issue against the paper for allegedly being racist in its headline ‘ Apa lagi Cina mahu ?’ (What more do the Chinese want?) and threatened to withdraw the company’s advertisements from it.

For this, he was slammed by several Malay rights and Muslim groups. Azran has since claimed that his comments were blown out of proportion.

However, Rafidah - who is also the former Umno Wanita chief - allegedly said that to her knowledge, the issue of withdrawing the AirAsia X’s advertisements from Utusan Malaysia has never been discussed by the company’s management.

shahrizat 300313 01 The paper also carried a press statement from Rafidah’s successor Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, purportedly in full.

Shahrizat ( left ) supposedly expressed disappointment over Azran’s statement and demanded Rafidah’s explanation on the matter.

“I hope she would understand Utusan Malaysia ’s struggle as the Malays’ only mouthpiece... Umno Wanita is very disappointed and wants Rafidah - as the chairperson responsible for AirAsia X - to give an explanation as soon as possible because too many Malays are displeased with Azran’s irresponsible views,” she was quoted as saying.