PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has questioned why 6,000 Malaysian Airlines (MAS) staff are being “punished” for the company’s poor management.

“Did you think what's the future of the 6,000 affected families? Can you reflect on that for one second. Is it their fault? Were they lazy? Were they not competent? Whose fault is this?

“Now why must you punish these poor guys when those who commit the crime (of bleeding MAS) are given adequate compensation?” he said in a speech in Puchong today.

Anwar was referring to the MAS’ RM6 billion restructuring exercise, which the sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional had announced yesterday.

 

Amongst other measures, it said loss-making airline has 30 percent more staff than comparable airlines, and those jobs would be retrenched.

 

Speaking to reporters after his speech, he said the 6,000 staff should not be “sacrificed” to save MAS while its senior management who had led the airline to making losses were “saved”.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the troubled airline is in need of restructuring.

      

'Who caused the losses?'

                                                                              

Earlier in his speech, Anwar said MAS used to make billions in profit, but had been mismanaged under successive leaderships starting from former MAS chief executive officer and chairperson Tajudin Ramli.

 

“What happened? It lost billions. Who caused the losses? Tajudin, and he was given a ‘gift’ RM586 million.

 

“Then a new management was appointed, Munir Majid. His priority? Buy paintings , RM1.8 million. They filled senior management positions like deputy directors, there were tens of them,” he said, among other alleged excesses.

 

Anwar also dismissed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s denial that the RM6 billion restructuring plan was a bailout.

 

“Say it straight: This is indeed a bailout because of the MAS’ problems and massive losses,” he said.