Fly Home To Vote!

A while back, I posted about Malaysians working abroad who will be returning home to vote.

Interestingly, the airlines appear to be cooperating with those returning around the 5th of May.

Extracts:

Airlines are hoping to cash in on the huge interest in Malaysia’s upcoming May 5 elections by offering discounts and promotions to entice Malaysians living abroad to come home to vote.

“Fly Home to Vote” kicked it off, with cheap tickets offered by discount carrier AirAsia Bhd.

There are over one million Malaysians living and working outside Malaysia, according to MyOverseasVote, a group set up to campaign for the right of Malaysians abroad to vote. Roughly 40% work in Singapore and 20% in other Asian countries, the group said.

“We’re urging people to come back to vote and be sure that their votes will go to their preferred party because we’re gravely concerned about the possibility of fraud,” Bersih co-chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan told The Wall Street Journal.

National flag carrier Malaysian Airlines System Bhd isn’t offering any special fares, but it will allow Malaysians to change their flight schedules to around the election period free of charge, a company spokesperson said.

The elections were exciting the last time round. This time it's going to be riveting.

Dressing Like A Malaysian

Spare my soul.

It's about dressing again.

Or rather the appropriate outfit that Malaysian women should wear when they may be said to represent the country overseas.

I wonder why we Malaysians obsess to death over our culture. You'd think we'd have better things on our hands.

Honestly, are we THAT inferior?? Are we THAT insecure that we constantly need to remind ourselves to dress Malaysian in order to promote Malaysia?

Give me a fricking break!

To begin with, why do we need to promote Malaysia? Are we all kutu-infested that no one in their right mind would want to come within a 5 mile radius of us?

Heck, if we were truly interested in our culture we'd be preserving our buildings, not destroying them like Bok House. Of course, Bok House was more of a racial issue than cultural, wasn't it?

And if it's racial, then we don't need the government to dictate what I wear. If I am non-Malay, then expecting me to wear a baju kurung or kebaya is tantamount to forcing an alien culture down my throat.

For goodness sake. MAS flight attendants wear a kebaya. Why should Air Asia follow suit? They already have a uniform. A very bright red one.

I would be very disappointed if Tony Fernandes actually gives consideration to the stupid suggestion of changing the Air Asia uniform to look more 'Malaysian'.

I've flown Emirates a couple of times. Their uniform is rather unusual - a blend of Middle Eastern and Western attire.

Which is acceptable as most of their flight attendants aren't exactly all Arabs. I see a fair amount of Scandinavians, Africans and Orientals.

In spite of their uniform, I doubt they are in any way representative of the United Arab Emirates as a country.

Related:
Heavy-duty dressing - Sun2Surf

Another Budget Airlines?

The story of AirAsia is phenomenal.

It began as the heavily-indebted subsidiary of the Malaysian government-owned conglomerate, DRB-Hicom, and was losing money big-time.

Then came along some Malaysian-Indian dude called Tony Fernandes who decided he wanted to own an airlines.

Now this guy is an accountant. He worked very briefly with Virgin Atlantic as an auditor, subsequently becoming the financial controller for Richard Branson's Virgin Records in London.

Upon his return to Malaysia, he became, at 27, the youngest-ever managing director of Warner Music.

That's even younger than I am now.

So he buys this failing airlines and decides he's going to turn it into a budget airlines - back then a completely UNHEARD-OF concept.

He started it just after the September 11, 2001, which is debatably the worst day in the history of commercial aviation when nobody wanted to fly.

Everyone figured this fellow Fernandes had flipped.

Everyone predicted that the company would fail miserably.

Yet, just one year after his takeover, AirAsia had broken even and cleared all its debts. Its initial public offering (IPO) in November 2004 was oversubscribed by 130 per cent.

This dude is WAY COOL.

Of course, the national carrier, Malaysia Airlines wants a slice of the pie.

Only recently, after drastic policy changes did MAS narrow its losses to 136.4 million ringgit (US$39 million) from 1.14 billion ringgit (US$326 million) a year earlier.

Since Air Asia has been thriving, MAS presumptously expects to achieve profit as well from its low-cost carrier called Firefly beginning next year.

Who knows, it may.

Since Firefly is based in Penang, a northern state, the domestic destinations are currently not being serviced by any other airline and so it gets to fill in the niche. Air Asia operates out of Kuala Lumpur.

However, we already have six airlines - Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, Berjaya Air, Transmile and Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) and Firefly. Granted, Transmile is cargo, Berjaya does exclusive charters and FAX is based in East Malaysia.

But we have a relatively small population. In fact, Malaysia is a relatively small country.

How many people do you expect up in the air at any one time? And how can MAS compete with AirAsia's super deals? I just bought a ticket (minus airport tax) to Jakarta, Indonesia for 30sen. That's $0.09 for the Americans. :)

I have wondered why they bother charging at all for the ticket. Of course, it's probably funkier to say I paid 30sen for a ticket. Makes it sound like I had to toil to save up for it. :)

But yeah, it would be fascinating to watch the competition unfold between AirAsia and Firefly.