KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's depiction of Malaysia Airlines' downfall in his biography proved he had contradicted himself, said outgoing Malaysia Airlines Berhad chief executive officer Peter Bellew yesterday.
He said Dr Mahathir had highlighted the matter in his book, A Doctor in the House, that it was his failure during his tenureship as prime minister which led to the fall of MAB (then known as MAS).
On Oct 20, the former prime minister in his blogpost, accused Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak of meddling in the affairs of the national carrier, and acting without referring to the company’s top management, which had apparently led to the resignation of Bellew.
However, Bellew on Sunday stressed that his resignation had nothing to do with politics but was motivated by personal reasons.
He also said reports linking the issue to his resignation were "100 per cent" incorrect.
“Across 200 pages in his own book, he (Dr Mahathir) completely contradicts himself,” said Bellew in the press conference in Petaling Jaya.
“On page 711 he states “The company had been doing well when it was sold to (Tan Sri) Tajuddin(Ramli) in 1994 and his acquisition of Malaysia Airlines had been seen as a coup.
“On page 533 he states “Tajuddin was elated over his purchase. He wanted to swap his Malaysian Helicopter shares for MAS shares. The Government rejected his plan and asked that he pay in cash instead, which forced him to borrow RM1.8 billion. I do remember wondering how Tajuddin would be able to buy the airline”,” said Bellew.
However, Bellew said Dr Mahathir contradicted himself on page 711 of his own book saying that Tajuddin had attempted to buy his stake in MAS through Celcom shares, which would have him not to spend any money but in the end, Tajuddin had to borrow a lot of money to buy the shares.
Bellew said that Dr Mahathir in his book wrote that if he had known about this, he would have put a stop to the acquisition.
“In his own book on page 533 he states that he knew it was debt that was unsustainable. On page 796 he highlights his bitterness when Tun (Abdullah Ahmad) Badawi did not appoint him as advisor to MAS. The damage goes back to 1994 and debt,” said Bellew.
Bellew had resigned on Oct 17, halfway through his three year contract which was supposed to end in June 2019.
Bellew, who joined the national flag carrier in 2015 as its chief operating officer before replacing Christoph Mueller in July 2016, is returning to Ryanair as the budget airline's chief operations officer starting Dec. 1.
On Sunday, he said that his decision to go back to Ryanair is due to education and family connections.
He said he needs to go back to his “old family” to help them out as it is his duty to his country since Rynair had been undergoing some publicised challenges.
He said he had no interference from anyone on anything and that he just wants to “balik kampung” (go home) to his “Negaraku” (country).