Tourism Malaysia Chief Is Said To Have Gone On A Rampage Over An AirAsia Bunting
Tourism Malaysia chairman Wee Choo Keong said that an AirAsia bunting was overshadowing the Tourism Malaysia brand.
By Tang Ruxyn — 24 May 2016, 11:51 AM
Tourism Malaysia chairman Wee Choo Keong has denied allegations that he berated a staff and broke an AirAsia bunting at the Beijing International Tourism Exhibition (BITE) recently
“I categorically deny that I broke the buntings with my bare hands as alleged by certain quarters. The wild allegations were most vicious,” said Wee in a statement yesterday, 23 May.
Wee explained that on the contrary, he had merely asked staff to remove buntings from AirAsia and Genting to the back of the Tourism Malaysia booth at the expo last weekend.
The reason for this, he said, was that the buntings were overshadowing the Tourism Malaysia (TM) brand, as well as obstructing the ribbon cutting area, for the launch ceremony.
“My stand is that no buntings from private companies should be allowed to overshadow the brand of TM unless they are buntings belonging to TM or the government,” added Wee.
His statement comes after claims that he had lost his cool at the mere sight of an AirAsia bunting during a tourism expo in Beijing, China on Friday, 20 May
Wee had apparently lashed out at his staff after he discovered that an AirAsia bunting was put up alongside other promotional materials at Tourism Malaysia’s booth, Malay Mail Online reported.
It was also said that the former MP had allegedly broken the bunting when it was placed backstage, before ordering his staff to remove all items associated with AirAsia.
Wee, who has been persistent in saying that AirAsia owes a huge amount of airport tax debt amounting to more than RM50 million, brought up the issue again in response to the incident
The Tourism Malaysia chief had claimed that AirAsia had a "huge outstanding debt with Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) that the company has failed to settle for years."
However, AirAsia Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Aireen Omar in a statement on Monday, 23 May, denied of having any outstanding debt to MAHB, stressing that AirAsia has consistently paid its Passengers Service Charge (PSC) to MAHB.
“We deem these latest statements by Mr Wee Choo Keong as intended to further injure the reputation of AirAsia following his earlier statements which are now already a subject to a defamation litigation," the statement read.
AirAsia Berhad has filed a defamation suit against Wee in July last year over his blog post on the same issue.
She had also urged Wee to stop attacking a public listed airline and focus on promoting Malaysia and attracting tourist arrivals instead.
Responding to the incident, AirAsia chief executive Tan Sri Tony Fernandes revealed that Wee has been "tormenting" the national budget airlines for "many years"
“For many many (sic) years this man has tormented us. We have no idea why,” Fernandes wrote in his latest Facebook posting.
He also added that Wee was always invited to visit AirAsia Allstars.
Fernandes stressed that AirAsia "brings the most Chinese tourists" to Malaysia, and the recent outburst by Wee is "over the top".
He included a screenshot of a news clipping of the said incident in Beijing, urging the public to be the judge on what is right and wrong.