October's many firsts

Today is the Oct 1, 2007, the first day of the last quarter of the year. For Malaysia in general and Sabah and Sarawak in particular, today also sees a lot of 'firsts'.

Firstly, today MASwings, a subsidiary of Malaysia's national airline, officially takes to the sky, taking over from Fly Asia Express (FAX), a subsidiary of MAS' rival and fierce competitor, Air Asia, in providing domestic flights within and between Sabah and Sarawak. In other words, yesterday (Sept 30) was FAX's last day of operating such services. (Click on image for a larger view)

When FAX first took over from MAS in the domestic sector for East Malaysia 13 months ago, the public, local travelers and tourists alike were full of hope and enthusiasm. This was partly because the public had by then become disillusioned with MAS' services and were looking forward to new and reliable services by Air Asia who had by then established a name for itself as a successful airline despite not having government support. MAS, the government airline, on the other hand did not mind 'giving up' the domestic flights then as these were after all losing concerns.

But alas, this was not to be, as after merely a year FAX practically gave up, passing the buck back to MAS. Instead of improving or providing reliable domestic flights, all FAX got almost every day was complaints, complaints and more complaints over flights delay and cancellations, non-reliability and so on. Tourism players had a nightmare due to this unreliability and lack of flights. This was despite the reputation of its parent company, Air Asia. MAS, on the other hand, being a government-controlled company had no choice but to reluctantly take back the domestic sector due to it social obligation and in this respect the formation of MASwings which was originally meant to serve the northern Peninsular Malaysia sector was indeed timely and welcomed.

MAS' agreeing to taking back the domestic flights and MASwings spreading its wings to Sabah and Sarawak is a big relief to the tourism industry and public in East Malaysia. The industry players can now once again push Sabah's tourism products especially Mount Kinabalu and Sarawak's Mulu Caves the promotion of which was hampered due to lack of flights. Also relieved were the people of Lahad Datu on the east coast of Sabah situated in between Sandakan and Tawau because there had been no flights for the past one year. Infact, the industry players in Lahad Datu were so happy that one hotel, ironically named Asia Hotel, placed advertisements in local newspapers welcoming MASwings to the coastal town.

Sikmading says: By now it is evident that this domestic flights thing is nothing but a pawn used by the airlines to get what they really want from the government. For example, "since the domestic sector is a losing concern give us compensations through other means, say more international routes or more landing rights or tax incentives and so on." After getting what they want, they begin to ignore their social responsibility on the domestic front. I pity MAS because apart from having to take back the domestic flights, albeit reluctantly, they had to fork out something like RM70 million to repair and put the Fokker and Twin Otter aircrafts back in running conditions which rightly should have been borne by either FAX or the government. Thank you, MAS.

The second 'first' is the fact that starting today Malaysians will need to dial only one number in time of emergency - 999 - and the operator will connect to the relevant agency like police, fire brigade, ambulance and civil defence. Before today, Malaysians had to dial 994 for fire brigade and 991 for civil defence and so on. Actually, we are only reverting back to the old system. My generation grew up knowing only one emergency number 999 but as the country developed and 'modernised' each rescue department wanted to have their own identity. The government finally decided that Malaysians should not be made to remember too many emergency numbers.

The third 'first' is that starting today Astro, Malaysia's pay television, introduced a new set of numbers for their channels. If formerly the channel numbers started from 1, now it is 101 and I don't see the logic of it. I won't be surprised if one day, just like the Malaysian government, they would revert back to the old system. People tend to introduce new systems just to show progress but they should also remember: "When something is not broken, don't fix it." Along with the new numbers of course came a few new Astro channels including Awani which is meant to be Malaysia's version of CNN. Sikmading says: Awani is putting too much emphasis on world news and too little on local news. It should be the other way round. If I want to watch world news, there is already CNN, BBC, CNBC, CCTV, Al-Zajeera and so on. If the excuse is Awani is in Malay/BM, well, even RTM already has world news in Malay and it's free.
Also, the name Awani got no 'oomh' lah, how to compete with CNN? Think of something better lah!

Today is also the start of what is popularly known as the Golden Week in China. This is because Oct 1 is China's national day (their version of Merdeka), commemorating the founding of modern China and their holidays stretches for one week, thus the nick name Golden Week for it gives the Chinese a much-needed rest and the chance to go back to the villages (bearing in mind the size of China) and visit the many tourism sights that China has to offer and so on. Taiwan, China's estranged 'province', celebrates their 'Merdeka' on Oct 10.

Lastly, today is also the start of the Rosary Month for Catholics. Throughout the month of October, Catholics recite the Holy Rosary in honour of Mother Mary, Mother of Jesus, at the same time asking for her intercession for the needy. Not that Catholics do not recite the Rosary at other times of the year, they do, except during the Month of Rosary they do so even more fervently. Rosary sessions are held every evening at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu.
For details call 088-223618.

To wind up, of course not forgetting Oktoberfest, the month in Germany when beer flow 'freely'. If we have Harvest Festival, they have Beer Festival!