Not really a secret

There was this share swap restructuring exercise involving Airasia. Part of this exercise was to "split" MH into long haul and short haul divisions. Long haul fleet (772s, 333s) was to be in blue just like that A380 livery. Short haul (738s) will be dressed in a red version of the A380 livery (just replace the blue or shades of blue with red). The painting of the A380 came during the time this exercise was already announced but was being finalised/ executed. But the restructuring was eventually cancelled due to various protests that it will result in some quasi monopoly controlled by Airasia folks, etc etc...

So in the end, the revised story for public consumption was that MH simply wanted a unique livery for its A380s...