By Ismail Nasaruddin
I am referring to an opinion piece written by Malaysia Airlines System former director of flight operations Capt Kamil Abu Bakar, entitled “Who is Nufam to criticise Khazanah, Malaysia Airlines?”
We are surprised by the statement issued by a former Malaysia Airlines captain who has targeted the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) for raising issues plaguing Malaysia Airlines (MAB) which he knows factually, why we doing so.
Perhaps Kamil also needs to ask the management himself on why the airline has failed miserably all these years, at the expense of thousands of workers who have been retrenched for the airline’s own failures.
Judging from his statement, Kamil should at least check his facts before speaking in the open.
And please, do not hesitate to call and check with our union officials before throwing all sorts of accusations against Nufam.
Has Kamil forgotten the legacy issues plaguing MAB when he was serving there in the management capacity?
Even the late MAS chairman, the respected Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman agreed with Nufam on several issues which we raised about MAS and MAB.
So who is Kamil to say otherwise?
Kamil was never involved in any discussions with Nufam. He does not even sit with the downline workers to find out the real issues of today.
He is simply out of touch with what’s going on.
But by calling us unions as one of the main cause of the airline failures is simply immature of him. He should not forget there were also times where unions and its members had helped the airline at their worst times.
Kamil even accused us unions as troublemakers and disgruntled ex-employees of the airline. But who is he today to even question the union and its leaders? Is he the airline’s spokesperson who is countering those issues raised by us?
By the way, Kamil should not forget that he was also once a party of a labour dispute with the airline while he was senior management pilot.
Should we refresh his memory in the public?
He should know that a union’s priority is to protect the interest and welfare of the airline’s workers who were once under his care and management.
We only want to see the airline not making the same mistakes like before and MAB continues to stay in business, but with the right management team who are also not anti-workers’ union.
Keep up with times
Kamil appears to be outdated on many things about Nufam. With such negative comments made against his former airline colleagues, he has only lowered MAB’s workers’ already-battered morale.
Is he claiming Nufam is shooting blanks about MAB issues without facts? If not, why is he highlighting the same concerns like ours also?
We implore Kamil to check his facts on what and who Nufam could represent and what unions do. There are basic labour law write ups which he can also refer for better understanding.
Without any current information, Nufam believes he is only speaking on behalf of some disgruntled anti-union individuals to fire back at us.
We urge him to scrutinise our previous media statements before throwing judgements on us in the public.
The fact is, Nufam need not respond to him since he is no longer part of the airline’s management nor someone with a position in the Government.
While Nufam is still engaging in discussions with the various agencies and Government officials to highlight the crisis affecting the industry and its employees, Kamil is merely sitting in his cozy chair like a keyboard warrior at home.
While some of his flying colleagues in our union do have some respect for him for being a former pilot but by picking a fight with us, Kamil appears to be nothing but a grumpy retired pilot today.
Perhaps he wants to share his ideas with us in dealing with the current industry issues since we are all now facing a big crisis.
If not, then Kamil should just enjoy his retirement quietly like others. – Dec 6, 2020
Ismail Nasaruddin is the president of the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam).
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
