Father of Proton the Woolly Mammoth

(Tanjak) – The sudden sale of MV Agusta Motors was a political death warrant bearing the legend ‘Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’ — signed by the PM’s tormentor, the Doctor in the House.

Proton had bought Augusta, maker of Italian motorbikes, in 2004.

A year later, Augusta was sold for the sum of one euro. The fire sale had incensed Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was then Proton Holdings Bhd advisor.

(He later assumed chairmanship of the company but resigned the post last year, shortly after quitting Umno.)

Now we have Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz calling Proton Dr M’s “failed white elephant”. What a double-barrelled putdown of Tun’s pet project!

The irreverent Nazri is generally perceived to be a stalking horse for Najib Razak.

Hence in the eyes of the affronted ex-premier, disposing Proton’s majority stake to a foreign buyer will somehow be entirely the fault of Najib, his bete noire.

Visualize how poor Dollah Badawi had been raked over hot coals in relation to the disposal of MV Augusta. What will the enraged white elephant keeper do to Najib with regard to selling off the biggest chunk of Proton?

The last of Tun’s mega project legacy

Is Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad merely saddened by the impending fate of his protected species Proton?

No.

He’s livid.

Tun blogged last week in Che Det, “I am sad that Proton is to be sold to foreign companies. Having a strategic partner is ok. But once Proton is sold to foreigners it will cease to be a national car.”

Proton is the symbol of Tun’s ambition for the automotive sector to drive Malaysia into heavy industry.

Although the plan is just to have the majority share-holding taken over by a more dynamic partner, nonetheless to Tun it is akin to sending Proton to the elephant graveyard.

That’s why Tun is livid. After all, he has nurtured the car’s growth for 34 years.

(Feasibility study for Proton was carried out in 1980; the company was incorporated in 1983 and the first Saga rolled off the assembly line in 1985.)

But Tun easily forgets.

In the first place – and this is a very important point – Proton is a private company. It is owned by DRB Hicom. Yet Tun keeps complaining that the government is not supporting Proton enough.

Secondly the company has been slipping in and out of the red. When Proton makes profits, it is to the financial benefit of its vested interests. When Proton makes losses, taxpayers are called upon to underwrite subsidies or R&D grants worth billions and billions.

Thirdly, Malaysians have for too long been coerced to buy Proton in the name of national pride and through other means of arm-twisting.

Not only were/are imported cars deliberately made too expensive, they still had to go through the AP process — an NEP mechanism holdover from the 1970s.

These layers of tariff rendered imported cars generally more pricey than what identical models cost in other countries as to be beyond our purchasing power.

Tun’s latest rant really takes the cake

We have of late been subjected to a series of tiresome snides by Tun.

For example, he asserted – falsely – how we have “become one of the ten most corrupt countries in the world. Syabas! Najib.”

Tun also made the not-quite-true claim that “Once upon a time Malaysia was called an Asian Tiger. Today Malaysia is not even a pussycat”.

It was South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore that were dubbed the Four Asian Tigers. At best, Malaysia was a tiger cub. And Tun is simply being too catty; truly unbecoming of an elder statesman.

Then he outlandishly piled on the hyperbole as to how he has “not been allowed to even meet or speak or phone Proton staff”.

And Tun has the chutzpah, moreover, to assess other cars as “sub-standard”. He reeked his trademark sarcasm in the following passage of his blog entry posted on 21 Feb 2017:

“All countries protect their automotive industry. It may not be through high import duties. But there are other ways of preventing imports from challenging locally made cars. These other ways are actually much more effective and can result in excluding foreign-makes completely. That is why Proton cannot be exported to these countries. We are very generous. Anybody can export their cars to this country. Sub-standard cars too can be imported.”

One, how many countries have felt it imperative to produce their own national car(s)?

More realistically, what key factors in Japan and Korea are different from or missing in Malaysia?

Do you recall the “70 million population” target – five children per family – mooted by Dr M? It was so that there would be enough Malaysians to provide a captive domestic market for Protons.

Two, what’s the real reason “Proton cannot be exported to these countries”?

A prominent Malaysian economist pointed out that Proton required more than 400 costly modifications to meet British standards.

Although failing to penetrate the automobile markets in the developed West, a small number of Protons nonetheless managed to be sold in the Indian subcontinent which set lower emission and safety benchmarks.

Three, Proton cannot even compete at home.

The most recent figures on car sales show that Proton is selling at half of Perodua’s volume. Perodua is the most popular brand in Malaysia.

Perhaps Tun was proud that at its peak in the late 1980s, seven out of every 10 cars sold in Malaysia were Protons. But that was primarily due to coercion by the government’s protectionist policies.

The market share for Proton has since tumbled to around 40 percent in 2005 and further dropped to around 20 percent in 2013.

Dr M: Perhaps we’d be better off being a European colony

Proton cars have been with us for three-and-a-half decades already.

Tun cannot expect the government to keep throwing good money after bad to keep Proton afloat if it cannot stand on its own four wheels.

Tun is upset that “once Proton is sold to foreigners it will cease to be a national car”.

Proton-the-National-Car had been flying the pennant of Tun’s nationalistic flag-planting.

He even takes it personally when critics condemn the performance of Proton cars.

It is bizarre that Tun should worry about patriotic pride in our national car when it is he who has been badmouthing Malaysia and running down the country at every turn.

Dr ‘Vison 2020’ Mahathir is, for instance, insistent that “Malaysia will remain a third world developing country”.

He even declared, “Frankly Malaysia would be a better country if we stayed as the colony of Europeans or other developed countries. They obviously know better than us about governance and the development of countries.”

Tun’s words above are frankly hurtful and hateful. He is the last person today who should be talking about the badge of nationalism.