Dr Mahathir should stop weeping over Proton
Far from being a national asset, the company has become a liability
By Tajuddin Rosli, free Malaysia Today
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ought to know better than to put on his weeping glasses to mourn the 49.9% sale of Proton to China’s Geely Holding.
Was he serious when he said the government was selling a national asset to foreigners? Proton is no asset to the nation. It has become a liability, with the government being forced to regularly pump in billions of ringgit to enable it to continue operating.
When Proton was set up under Mahathir’s regime, Mitsubishi JV, a Japanese company, owned 30% of its shares. In 2005, Mahathir himself opened discussions with Volkswagen Aktiengesellaschaft (VW) to get the German company to buy stakes in Proton. He proudly said then that he would not mind it if VW were to own shares in the national car company.
Many Malaysians are celebrating the news that a credible company like Geely has bought a large stake in Proton. We are tired of Mahathir’s bailout culture. In the 1980s, Petronas injected a huge amount of money to bail out debt-ridden and politically affiliated Bank Bumiputra. In 1998, Petronas bailed out Mirzan Mahathir’s company, Konsortium Perkapalan Berhad (KPB). Mahathir forced the sitting government to bail out Proton umpteen times.
Going by Mahathir’s theory, Sweden has also sold its national asset to China (Geely bought Volvo in 2010) and Britain has followed suit with the 2013 sale of London Taxi Company, again to Geely.
DRB-Hicom’s managing director, Syed Faisal Albar, has welcomed the Proton sale, saying it would enable the company to assemble Volvo cars. He also spoke of plans to launch Geely’s mid-sized sports utility vehicle in the local market.
Besides, Proton’s employees will not be affected by this move. DRB-Hicom still controls 50.1% of Proton. It will remain a national brand no matter what Mahathir alleges.
Mahathir has likened giving up Proton to giving up Singapore back in 1965. But he admits that Singapore is a developed nation today because it broke away from Malaysia. Had it not broken away, Singapore would be akin to Kuala Kedah or Kuala Perlis.
However, Mahathir claims that even if Geely is able to make Proton a globally competitive vehicle one day, he will not be proud because it is not 100% Malaysian. It seems to be okay with him if Proton continues to incur losses as long as it is 100% Malaysian and as long as his cronies get to sell over-priced hardware to the company.
Mahathir tried to destroy the legacy of Tunku Abdul Rahman, but his own legacy is in tatters today. Is this karma?
