Netizens React to Tony Fernandes’ Apology

By JUICE Malaysia  •  15 May 2018 in Exposé

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Things have been changing at a rapid pace since last week with heads looking to roll as Tun M was sworn in as our 7th PM. Among the controversies surrounding GE14, was AirAsia’s involvement in supporting the former ruling party, Barisan Nasional’s campaign–which included painting one of their planes with the party’s campaign propaganda and AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes releasing a video in support of BN saying the usual ‘we couldn’t have done it without you’ kind of crap.

Fernandes was quick to respond with an apology-video when Pakatan Harapan surprisingly won. Apart from claiming that he was pressured to remove Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz as Chairman of AirAsia X because of her joining PH and leading the charge with Tun M, Fernandes also said that he was put under even more pressure when AirAsia launched 120 extra flights at a discounted price (RM99-129 for flights within Malaysia) which was aimed to ferry voters back home. “Within 24 hours we were summoned by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) and told to cancel all those flights. That put us again under tremendous pressure,” said the CEO in his apology vid. AirAsia and Fernandes did not buckle.

However, this morning, according to marketing-interactive.com, Mavcom has announced that they would be investigating Fernandes’ claims and that they considered it “serious allegations”. The statement read: “We have immediately commenced an investigation into these claims. We will keep members of the public informed.” Shares in AirAsia tumbled nearly 10% on Monday, before closing down 5.4% in the first trading session since Wednesday’s election according to The Edge.

Marcom wasn’t the only one responding to his apology video which was released last Sunday. Malaysian netizens were quick to react with some supporting the AirAsia founder while others doubting the sincerity in his speech.

Here are a few comments that caught our attention:

Some Malaysians forgave, some even cheered him on and thought he had nothing to apologise about…

 

Then there were those who were more skeptical…

 

Watch Tony Fernandes’ apology vid below:

Will all Malaysians ever forgive poor ol’ Tony? Will Mavcom find him wrong? Only time will tell.