By Datuk Yong Teck Lee, Kota Kinabalu, 12 August 2011It seems that Sabah has lost its sole representation in the board of the national flag carrier Malaysia Airlines last week with the Comprehensive Collaboration Framework between MAS, Air Asia and Air Asia X.
This is a sad event that signifies another blow to Sabah's status and reveals the subservience of the Sabah BN to their federal masters. This loss of Sabah representation also exposes Sabah to the mercy of the MAS – Air Asia monopoly. Did the Sabah State government know that its representative in the MAS board would be thrown out?
In a low profile announcement by MAS this week, the sole Sabah representative in the MAS board, Datuk Sukarti Wakiman, was unceremoniously thrown out of the MAS board of directors. In fact, it has been the government policy for several decades that the Sabah and Sarawak state governments are allocated a representative each in the MAS board. By convention, in the case of Sabah, that representative has always been the Sabah State Secretary.
When Datuk Sukarti Wakiman, our current State Secretary, is thrown out of the board, it means that the Sabah representation is thrown out. To add insult to injury, the new directors who replaced Datuk Sukarti and other directors are mainly top corporate leaders, international, first class high fliers with little or no experience of the frustrations and discomfort of travelling within Sabah and Labuan.
I remember the sad truths in the 1970s and 1980s, that Sabah used to be on the receiving end of used aircrafts, old passenger buses and second-hand boarding ramps sent from Subang airport in KL when Subang airport got their supply of new aircrafts, buses, ramps and other machineries. Even the recruitment of aircraft crew and air stewards and stewardesses used to be done only in KL. It was only after protests by Sabah leaders in the 1980s, that the recruitment was done locally in Sabah.
SAPP calls on our leaders at both the state and federal levels to reinstate the Sabah representation in MAS. Since the Air Asia board of directors now consists of government representatives, the government should similarly ensure that Sabah and Sarawak are represented in the Air Asia board so that the interests of the people, the economy and the development of the Borneo states are not compromised by the new MAS – Air Asia monopoly.
Datuk Yong Teck Lee is President of Sabah Progressive Party
party malaya only treat sabah people as slave. They came to Sabah to steal and rob our natural resources but they are the one to decide how much they give back to us. It sound like whatever natural resources found in Sabah is belongs to party malaya but not ours. Our Sabah BN MPs is sleeping on their job all this while. It so pathetic!
ReplyDeleteThe merger between MAS & Airasia is a step backward for Sabah & Sarawak as this clearly show that BN led govt is against healthy competition in the air industry.
ReplyDeleteThe open sky policy for the esat malaysian states is no longer open sky policy as the merger has reintroduced monopoly for the new entity.
Once again we are as a disadvantage in air travel as cost of travel will eventually increase, & this will affect the tourism industry in Sabah.
The State govt should allow more foreign airlines to travel direct to Sabah as way to maintain healthy competitions & to bring in more tourists. Sabah should be open up for more foreign airlines & should not impose any conditions for them to bring in more tourists and should be able to pick up passengers from Sabah.
Passenger air fare should be determined by supply & demand & the 'new entity' can not impose any condition on air fare by foreign airlines.This is another cabotage policy of air between wm & em. This will eventually created disparity between wm & em in air travel.