PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines Bhd's financial issues stem from the era of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad.
The Johor Baru MP said that outgoing MAS chief executive officer Peter Bellew had pointed out that the problems the airline was in started in 1994 under Dr Mahathir.
Bellew had said that the former premier had privatised the company in an effort to cover up part of the RM32.5bil forex losses scandal.
In a statement on Monday (Oct 23), Shahrir said Bellew had also repeatedly denied Dr Mahathir's claims that his resignation was due to interference from the Government or from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Bellew, who is currently on garden leave, responded with a press conference denying allegations that there was interference from MAS' major shareholder Khazanah Nasional Bhd and the Government in the management of the airline.
He also denied he was leaving because of last month’s aircraft order.
"In his complete rebuttal of Dr Mahathir's allegations, Bellew also clearly said that the purchase of new Boeing planes to replace existing planes coming off leases and to add new routes was a decision made by the airlines long before and was in line with its recovery plans," said Shahrir.
"As with the legacy problems of the lop-sided Independent Power Plant agreements where the Government had solved and the frequent toll increases of PLUS Bhd-owned highways which we took complete control from the private owners in 2010, we should revive the airline and put it back in its rightful place as the pride of our nation," he added.
Dr Mahathir had previously claimed in a blog post that Bellew quit MAS due to interference from Najib.
Bellew has taken up a post at Ryanair and will be succeeded by Captain Izham Ismail.
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