Putting a foreigner in charge of Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) has cost the national carrier its competitive edge in an open sky policy, says its former CEO Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman.

Abdul Aziz believes MAS does not have enough resources after the retrenchment exercise implemented by its former CEO Christoph Mueller.

"MAS is not ready to compete under the open sky policy, after the job cuts and the selling off of its planes," he told Malaysiakini when met outside the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate’s Court today.

A practising lawyer, Abdul Aziz had earlier represented the accused charged with stealing a handphone from Low Yat Plaza in July last year.

He is also currently representing the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) in a case filed by some 50 workers who have been laid off.

"Retrenching thousands of workers was not the best way. If existing funds had been used properly, that (retrenchment) did not need to happen," he argued, referring to state investor Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s RM6 billion restructuring exercise for the air carrier.

Abdul Aziz (photo) said MAS may now find itself having to incur extra costs to recover the assets that it had let go.

The retrenchment exercise was carried out as part of Khazanah Nasional's 12-point plan to cut 6,000 jobs and bring the staff strength to 14,000, before launching Malaysia Airlines Bhd.

Mueller had, at that time, signed a three-year contract to lead the restructuring exercise.

'Khazanah should correct its mistakes'

However, MAS announced in April that Mueller had resigned as CEO and managing director and that he would officially leave the company in September this year.

Commenting further, Abdul Aziz said Khazanah should correct its "mistakes" and appoint a bumiputera CEO to replace Mueller.

"We have been independent for 60 years… During my time (at MAS), there was not even one single expatriate.

"If they appoint an expatriate, the person will not understand the need to abide by government recruitment policies," said Abdul Aziz who became managing director of MAS in 1972 and held the post until 1991.

Nufam yesterday called on Khazanah to let go of its stakes in MAS or any other airline.

Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin had claimed that since taking over MAS in 2002, Khazanah has little to show for, except a succession of management changes and short-lived chief executives.

The union also presented a memorandum of its demands to the Transport Ministry in Putrajaya today.