(Sept 17): Former Malaysia Airlines (MAS) chief executive officer Datuk Idris Jala said he was once asked to give a “religious” explanation on why the airline would continue to serve alcohol on board when he took over the top job at the national carrier.

Speaking at a national unity conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, Idris said a staff at a town hall session had asked him to explain why the airline was serving alcohol when “Malaysia is an Islamic country”.

"This guy stood up during the Q and A time and said me, 'boss, we are an Islamic country, Malaysia Airlines is the national airline, why are we serving alcohol on our plane? Brunei doesn't, Saudi doesn't.'

"And he went on to say to me, 'Don't tell me the reason is because customers want it, I want a religious response from you'," Idris narrated.

Idris said he then reached for the microphone and told the employee that he would give him a religious response, but that he wanted him to answer two questions first.

"I asked him, 'do you believe that God is all powerful, that he can do anything he wants with his power?’ and he responded yes.

"Then I asked him 'do you believe that God does not like sin, does not like alcohol?’ and again he answered yes, 'God does not like alcohol' .

“I said, if you say 'God is all powerful, he not does like sin, why does he not use his power to remove sin and alcohol?"

"And I told him I would provide the answer to that, and I said, it is because God is a God of justice, he gives us freedom to choose to sin or not to sin, to drink or not to drink and that is the concept of God.

"If you think that God is only all power, only all righteousness, then if he was only just that, he would use his power to remove all sin, then we are incapable of sinning, but God is not a God that forces people," Idris said, in relating his exchange with the employee.

The conversation drew an applause from the MAS crowd, Idris said, adding that 'even the guy clapped'.

"He said 'boss, I think I agree with you, maybe for now, can you put a note on the menu to say this is non-halal," Idris told the conference audience yesterday, who applauded at his anecdote.

Idris also explained at the conference how he was able to respond to the employee spontaneously back then.   

He said it was because they practiced a draconian version of Christianity in his village in Bario, Sarawak, adding that people in his village were not allowed to drink and smoke, and that the ban has been debated for the last two decades.

"We have been having the debate about whether we would allow people in our home village to smoke and drink for a long time.

"That is why the argument I put forward to the guy was so lucid, I am not very smart actually, but its an argument we've had in my village for 20 years," he said, drawing another round of laughter.

The CEO of Pemandu was speaking at the conference titled 'Nation Building, Unity and the Malaysian Dream' and was addressing the discussion on the fault lines that existed within the different religions in the country and whether it was possible to separate religion from the state. – The Malaysian Insider