AUG 6 — With all the wicked twists lately, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes should now look in the mirror, give a stinging lecture to himself and then growl: “You’re fired”. Better still, with the dagger stare he has picked up since becoming a reality TV star.
Yes, that would be a perfect irony to what the AirAsia boss has been doing as host of prime-time show “The Apprentice Asia” the past few weeks, unceremoniously sacking participants who do not measure up.
Well, as some critics are asking, what about he himself not fitting the bill in certain undertakings, like the badgering flop at Queen’s Park Rangers?
The London football club has crash-landed and dropped out of the premier division in the English league just two seasons after Fernandes had bought it over. And you know what that means to his image that dealt an embarrassing blow to his investment skills.
Two years ago, just as he was sealing the deal, he said: “QPR were one of the first teams I watched as a child at Loftus Road. I’ve always wanted to be involved in football and the appeal of a London club, like QPR, was too good an opportunity to turn down.” However after a long stretch of winless games that led to the sacking of managers and players, reality began to sink in.
Having to play in the lower, less prestigious and less money-making league in the new season, QPR now faces an exodus of players.
The BBC Sport website reported recently Fernandes had put in £50 million (RM250 million) of his personal fortune into the club and said he had “learned a lesson”. He was also quoted as saying he had been “exploited”.
Comments from readers that followed the posting were scathing. One, from “honeyroastpeanut” said: “If anything, he’s exploited QPR for the sake of promoting his own companies. It’s been a £50mill marketing campaign for Air Asia.”
Another, from “cardiff canary”: “Exploited!!!??? You were the one who employed Harry Rednapp, What did you expect?”
And just the other day, Fernandes used Twitter to announce the club’s new plans. “We will bolster firepower. We are working damn hard. I learn fast. And I don’t care about negative comments. Key goal is Twitter, to keep fans posted. I think it’s refreshing and transparent. And you fans deserve it. The abuse I get is undeserving for someone who works so hard but it’s results that counts. And I have failed on that count as chairman.”
The woes seem to have now multiplied for the millionaire with a multi-industry background because AirAsia itself is running into problems in its group.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week AirAsia Japan Co was cancelling a portion of its flights this autumn because it won’t have enough planes to service all of its routes as the low-cost carrier parts ways with the Malaysia-based carrier of the same name.
The cancellations will affect 14,000 passengers and 14 daily flights for about two months starting September 1. The budget carrier, formed as a joint venture between the parent of Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways and AirAsia Bhd, said it needs to return two of the five planes in its fleet to AirAsia by the end of September, making it difficult to service all of its current routes, the WSJ said.
In June, ANA Holdings Inc said it would end its unprofitable partnership with AirAsia because of disagreements over how to run the budget carrier, dissolving the venture less than a year after it began operations.
And that unfortunately is not all. It was reported last week that AirAsia Bhd’s bid to launch an airline in India in October has hit some turbulence with a petition filed by Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy seeking to withdraw clearance given by the Indian Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for the venture.
That is the stark reality of life — the ups and downs, sometimes without realising it and sometimes being shoved with the downside while you are up.
And while he is firing people away on TV, Fernandes might as well also include two others on “The Apprentice” conveyor belt.
One is the national football team for the hopeless state it is in and consequently the Football Association of Malaysia and its officials, including the coach, for allowing the rot to set in. The latest results from the test matches in Japan (including bottom-placed teams) provided a very grim picture of what’s to come.
The other is the national sepak takraw team as well as officers helming the national association for being too laidback in the face of one defeat after another in the hands of other countries, the latest being Myanmar.
Fernandes would do well to get them on TV and, in front of millions of viewers, snap out his two little magic words.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
