patriotism

In less than a year another tragedy strikes MAS, our national flagship airlines yet again. Human lives are lost again and the pain and sorrow is being felt again in every corners of the world. Question has been asked, how will MAS survive this ordeal and continue to remain relevant in the industry.

A minister has plea that all Malaysians should stand side by side with MAS in its hour of darkness. This is definitely a valid plea because as Malaysians we must never abandon our national airlines leaving it free falling into the abyss. This is patriotism and must be cultivated in every Malaysians regardless of race, religion and social status. The next golden question will be; how do we as Malaysians able to help?

Analysis has been done countless of times on MAS and its issues of profitability way before the 2 colossal incidents that befalls it. Based on the analysis, the current business model of MAS bleeds more expenses than its ability to generate revenue. It has been running on losses continuously even though being bailout by the government numerous times. It was always presumed that there are 2 main reasons for the continued failure. One of them is the resistance of the MAS union members to a total organization revamp that can affect benefits cuts and even job cuts. The other reason is lopsided service contracts with external vendors that are charging atrocious fees that chalk up huge expenses.

Now coming back to the minister’s plea, a very curious logic has come to mind, aren’t the MAS union members and those external vendors Malaysians? Aren’t they obliged to become patriotic and save MAS from its hour of darkness? The general Malaysians have done their part from the government bailouts which are taxpayers’ money. Isn’t it time these MAS union members and external vendors do their part as Malaysians?

There are successful case studies that we can learn from for instance Japan Airlines turnaround from bankruptcy into a much leaner-managed airline. Therefore there is still hope for MAS to do a similar turnaround but the catch is Malaysians and this means all Malaysians must stand steadfast by its side.

A quote from John F. Kennedy succinctly sums it up,” Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” God bless Malaysia and its people.

humanity vs progress

“Move out or be fined”, those are the words from a Malaysian minister to the organizations that feed the homeless in KL city center. There are many arguments on the rationale of this move from both sides of the fence. In a nutshell it sounds cruel to deprive the homeless of aid and relief. However, the minister came up with an argument that the homeless creates much problem for the city to thrive, in sense of tourism and cleanliness.

A city is built by its people. No doubt, it will be ideal if the people living in the city able to contribute immensely and effectively for the city to progress. Are the homeless considered a scourge in this sense since they are being seen not contributing in any way? Human resource management has taught us, each individual in regardless of his competence level will be able to contribute in one way or another for the cause. In this case, the homeless are doing odd jobs within the city and without them, who will take up these jobs? A job no matter how menial is still required to be completed to run a city.

We should not just dismiss these homeless aside and writing them off wantonly. In fact, there are so many success stories of homeless people becoming self-sufficient later in their lives. One of the famous one is Chris Gardner, portrayed in the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness". He was homeless with a young son while he was in a finance training program. Therefore we should provide assistance to the homeless in every way we can. They would not be in that state if they have a choice.

As Mahatma Gandhi puts it, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”…..more so of its people. God bless Malaysia.