August 31, 2011
PROTON: “Melayu-developed car of pride”(?)
by Dr.KJ John@http://www.malaysiakini.com
Aug 30, 11
2:10pm
Ahmad Talib is a mainstream media personality having served as the former managing editor of the NST. I first met him when I gave a lecture at the Ministry of Information about the National IT Agenda.
Ahmad Talib wrote a recent column where he talked about a conversation he had with Proton CEO Syed Zainal about the story of a Proton taxi-cab which Syed Zainal took from KLIA to go home.
During the trip, twice the taxi driver did not open the power windows to pay his toll but instead opened the entire door. When asked why, the driver complained that he was told that if he used the power window too often, it could easily get spoilt. Therefore, he chose to do it the more difficult way.
Syed Zainal, as reported by Ahmad Talib in his column, told the driver who he was and requested that he continue to use the power window instead and that he would personally get it repaired if it really got spoilt. The Proton CEO even gave his card but to date he had not heard from the taxi driver.
Maybe the advice worked, but in the mean time, Ahmad Talib has since reported that many other Proton owners called to confirm the hypothesis of the taxi driver, based on their own experience.
N
ow, what is the real problem here? I once had the privilege of visiting Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff in his office when he was CEO of Proton. At a briefing he gave us, he informed the group of visitors from Mimos Berhad that the real problem with Proton was that inadvertently it was positioned and marketed from the beginning as “a people’s car”.
Therefore, Proton was never really able with that brand reputation to reposition its image to compete with the imported versions of other saloons or others of an equal class and quality.
My take on this issue is however somewhat different. My view is that Proton was postured and positioned originally as a national car but over time, with many decisions and many related supplier-vendor crony relationships and concerns, the same car has been redefined as a matter of a “Melayu-developed car of pride” but no more as a Malaysian people’s car.
In fact, today, even the definition of what is a national car, I believe, has now been revised to suit this identity crisis. Today, if I am not mistaken, even an ordinary distributor of cars and marketer of foreign-made cars is even classified as a “maker of national cars”.
Crony interests among suppliers
I remember vividly the day Proton was revealed. Dr Mahathir Mohamad (TDM) had sold it to the nation as a matter of national pride and part and parcel of his pet Bangsa Malaysia agenda.
I did participate with pride in wanting to visit a showroom and see the car for myself. TDM had promised it would be delivered within two years. I even touched and pounded on it to feel the car and see if was made from “Milo and Ovaltine cans”.
But, sadly when real production began in Malaysia, market competitiveness took a back seat as “cronies of the mainstream agenda got the contracts to become vendors and suppliers.”
I speak with sincerity and no malice to anyone. I was faced with some real life cases when I tried to help a good friend from the Sikh community who was already in the curtain tape business and had secured an Australian supplier who could support the development of Proton’s safety belt development at very reasonable costs.
My friend’s family had been in this business for many years.
But, with many crony interests and other small but petty considerations, my friend had to finally give up after a few years of waiting and trying to become a Proton supplier.
With many ‘bad decisions’ like these, slowly but surely, the entire Proton supplier-vendor network in Malaysia may today come from only one community.
Therefore, my reflective question today for all readers is: Is Proton a still a Malaysian car or has it become a psychological symbol to project a Ketuanan Melayu identity?
The same can be asked of Malaysian batik. There was a time in public service when we would be frowned upon if we did not wear authentic Malaysian batik and instead wore Indonesian batik.
Today, I do not drive a Proton but I love Malaysian batik but do not really care whether someone wears Indonesian or Japanese batik. As long as our batik designers make excellent quality of Malaysian batik, I will pay for and wear them.
In my previous two columns, I have raised a similar identity crisis issue in different ways. For one of them, I received a lot of negative and emotional feedback from writers who could not understand or appreciate the need for a concept of nationality. Distinguished Prof AB Shamsul argues, “we are still not yet a nationality but only a state”.
Only one class of citizens
My question to all citizens and Proton, the corporate entity – when are we all ever going to become first-class citizens of the nation-state called Malaysia?
Can we really expect Lee Chong Wei to win the Olympic gold for badminton when there are those who say, “why bother to watch the finals of the badminton, because whether they are Indonesian, or Malaysian, or from China, these are all only Chinese players”. We have to see things beyond race and ethnicity for quality and excellence to be nurtured.
When are we really going to grow up and become proud to be Malaysian, whether Indian, Chinese or Malay or Kadazan or Iban? Or even not care, whether we were originally Javanese, Malayalee, or Cantonese, or Orang Sungai, or Orang Laut, or Orang Asal?
Come on Malaysia, we need to decide who we are and what we want to make out of life, while we make ends meet in this country of ours.
My argument, first made at the Perdana Leadership Talks, was that we all have multiple identities but we are all Malaysians first and foremost. If someone claims he is not, we should ask him to shape up or ship out.
Secondly, we all have a heritage of faith, which defines our worldview. That we cannot deny and this defines our belief systems. Thirdly, we all have an ethnic heritage which defines our culture, a mother tongue and our taste-buds.
Fourthly, we all have a personality. Some are extroverts and others introverts. Some are judgmental and others are feelings driven. Depending on which personality profile instrument you use, you can still learn some very interesting things about yourself and about others. Finally, from my dignity thesis, and the nature of human nature, we get the fact that we all have a human conscience.
Therefore, I dare say this: no one can convert me or force me to do anything that I would not want to do willingly. In the literature this is called free will. All humans have free will. That does not take away the sovereignty of God or what can be called God’s Will. God exists at a different paradigm level and too often we cannot know or understand God because we reduce Him to our level of thinking.
Let God remain God and man stay man. A pot cannot question the potter. What we truly and actually need is to understand who we are and what our purpose in this life is. Once that is clear, then we can move on with the business of living our short life for the glory of our Creator. Our identity cannot be shaken or disturbed only because some called us names or even called us the wrong names.
My take is that if you are an anak Bangsa Malaysia, then you are a first-class Malaysian and no one – yes, no one, and not even the government – can deny you that right, unless you wilfully do something wrong.
May God Bless Malaysia and Selamat Hari Raya to all Malaysians.
Dr. KJ JOHN, who has a PhD from The George Washington University, was in public service for 29 years. He is now dean of the Faculty of Economics and Policy Science at UCSI University, Malaysia. The views expressed here are personal views of the writer and not those of the university or any other institution he is involved with. Please write to the columnist at kjjohn@ohmsi.net, if you have any feedback or views.
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
PROTON is bleeding. Just close it down and use taxpayers’ money for other useful purposes. Another failed Mahathir project, so why continue to fund and subsidize it?.
dr john,
why dont you tell the DPM to get lost, no?
even the PM has to give the DPM deference for “Melayu first Malaysian second”. His 1 Malaysia is no good for the DPM and Pm doesnt even to get into an entanglement with his DPM over 1malaysia.
Speaking about “Batik”. It does not matter whether it is Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, mainland China, Taiwan and even Japan made. They all just differ in the designs on the pieces of original white cotton cloth.
I have always have the suspicion that the word ‘ba’ (or pek which means white in Hokkien) and ‘tik’ (tay which means base in Hokkien) means white base or white cloth on which different coloured designs are imprinted.
Even if this assertion is true, I am very sure nobody in Malaysia is going to stop wearing ‘batik’ which is also an English word, just because it may be of Chinese origin.
Let us apply this the Proton cars.
As long as they are good, the market will be there. If Malaysia allows powerful interests to forfeit the people’s right to enjoy quality products, especially when they are produced in Malaysia.
Therefore if Proton cars are of good quality, there is no fear for market growth and for exporting too. However, to tell Malaysians that they must show patriotism through buying poor-quality and useless locally manufactured cars is something strange.
Hence Proton can be like the ‘batik’ too. If it is nice and useful, it goes international and many nations indentify it as part of their culture. Then it would stick.
That will be a true winner for the “Made in Malaysia” branding. Properly handled, the Proton brand can be the leading bird followed by other flying geese in the flying geese formation. Usually the leading bird must a strong one because it gives direction and side stream the winds.
Yup, the Proton supplier-vendor crony system is indeed alive and well. Lotus is bleeding through all it’s orifices too. Instead of abandoning this so called ‘strategic’ project, i think what Proton really needs is a CEO and management team with the cojones to do an internal audit and open up the tender process. With proper financial and fiduciary guidance, a modicum of engineering accuracy, better distribution network, stringent pre-delivery inspection and improved after-sales, i’m confident that Proton can compete with the rest. A partnership with a Global car manufacturer would certainly help in economies of scale. The cars themselves are well designed, even if there is an excessive amount of bling (due to the kampong mentality), but their execution is crap. At the moment, things can only get worse. Protons export markets are in shambles.
Tengku Mahleel was the progenitor of all things wrong in Proton, thinking that he was indispensable since he was anointed by Octo. He was the epitome of what corporate culture should not breed – opinionated, arrogant, yet incompetent and lackadaisical. The present crop of head honchos are slightly better, but they still lack the spine to change an inbred corrupted system. But then, this is what one would consider a Malaysian ‘success’ story.. Mediocrity at it’s best.
Frankly, the writer is a bit of a waffler who goes from Proton to Hari Raya and God and what not. Suffering from Phditis me thinks.
Tengku Mahaleel? That arrogant twat who had to show off his royal credentials from Kelantan to get respect? He is a history graduate. What does he know about automobile manufacturing? The twat has a penchant for fast cars. That is only his qualification for the job. I last met the guy at Malam Che Det thrown in honor of the then Prime Minister. He bodek the old guy for the job.
“I once had the privilege of visiting Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff in his office when he was CEO of Proton.” KJ John
Why privilege?? KJ John and this twat Tengku Mahaleel were contemporaries at MU.
Enough said about Proton. The reason why Malaysians have had to pay high prices for their locally assembled foreign cars is because of Proton.
The authour has completely left out the investent on the spanking state-of-the-art from design to manufacturing line in Tanjung Malim. Who got the contrzct to build it? What is being used for today? Has it been rented out for use by another manufacturer? Is it a Gajah Putih? So many questions but no answers.
NEP may not be good for PROTON but a successful PROTON will be good for the NEP.
Its always Malay this and Malay that – civil service, police, army, contracts, scholarships, head of departments, GLCs, Ag, CJ, SS, univercity VCs, and even the space traveller.
Tell me, when were we ever a Malaysian………. except when overseas.
Dr KJ John, it was done for a ” purpose ” ( just keep in mind the hijacking of Article 153, and we may be able to discover why ) :
Disclosed by some Japanese group, but on condition of anonymity, unofficially…
It was supposed to have been ” Toyota ” right ? Somebody else of “rolls royce” standing came in between….deal was done. In our treasury book, it says paid out 500Million for the prototype, that’s the cost. Someone flew to Japan, collected the CD ( Certificate of Deposit ) & deposited into private kitty of someone in the Swiss Bank…. What prototype, all there in the class of the ” rolls royce ” ? ?.
i doubt if that would have been possible, if it was a “Malaysian-made Car !
Melayu-developed car of pride sounds derogatory towards the Malays. Implying that it is a Malay car and thus inferior.
Racism of the hughest order.
Shouldn’t Proton be the pride and joy of Malaysians?
funny how you connect inferior and malays jeff. why?
funny how I dont read this article the way you do?.
are we even reading the same article Jeff?
Dr. John, Let me first confirm the Taxi driver’s fears about the window mechanism getting spoilt. My brother has had a proton for donkeys years and ‘that window problem’ occured to him twice! Once he had to drive in heavy rain between two toll gates, a distace of 200+ Kilometers, because the window that he brought down to take the toll ticket would not go up!
This is a very well known problem among Proton owners, but tell me Dr. John, after all these years the CEO of Proton Syed Zainal doesn’t know about it? Any Japanese or Korean Car manufacturer would have immediately made sure that the parts supplier had not only improved/rectified the problem, but would have gone one step futher, re-called the Protons and replaced the mechanism for Free!
….but here in real ‘ Di Malaysia Boleh’ style that problem has yet to be rectified after 25 years! Why worry Proton is Protected from Competition!
K J John typifies the convoluted psyche of many Malaysians. Do i belong or don’t I ?. Pride and prejudices will always be there in any society, and one tends to feel it more if you are in the minority .Proton is neither Malaysian nor Melayu. It is just a brand in the automobile industry to feed the bloated ego of the PM who ruled the country for two decades+ 2 years, and destined never to succeed ,due to shady business practices and flawed management. Live with it Malaysians for as long as UMNO/BN leads you !!
The insistence of calling Proton a made-in-Malaysia car is laughable. What difference is there between Proton compared to UMW (Toyota), Tan Chong (Nissan), Perodoa, Swedish Motors, Oriental Assemblers and others in the same trade/business of assembling cars? Proton is essentially an assembler like the rest and should refrain from trying to call itself a car manufacturer.
From day one of its operations it has all along been assembling Mitsubishi models branded under the Proton label. What’s the big deal? Started almost at the same time with the Koreans, look at how and what they have progressed with their Hyundais, Kias, Ssangyongs etc. and what have we? All so-called tie-ups after Mitsubishi has been failures and we should be lucky that Mitsubishi is still supportive otherwise we won’t even have anything to assemble.
The main/major parts of a car i.e. engine and chasis/frame with its 4 doors we have yet to be able to produce on our own, so how do we qualify as a manufacturer and claim made-in-Malaysia?
The writer is right when he said : “cronies of the mainstream agenda got the contracts to become vendors and suppliers” That basically is the role of the Proton plant – to provide avenues for such vendors to produce mediocre parts at hiked-up prices to unload their stuffs.
There are still so much faults with Proton that losing money year-after-year and surviving solely with govt. grants and assistance is the only road that Proton is treading – unless bold decisions “can” be taken to revamp the whole operation. With Kutty as advisor, would anybody dare even to initiate ideas? let alone make bold decisions???
K J John,
You must really have a john in your head. What are you complaining about or whining about . You worked in the system, for the better part of your life , and you would have seen all this that you seem to be whining about . But because you had a john in your bloody head , you did not stand up to be counted . Not only that , you went about putting down others who tried to stand up and be counted.
And now you whine? Bloody ass!
Thailand use Toyota Altis as taxis. Here what we have is a Waja taxi which has difficulty putting in 2 mid-size luggage bag and only allow two passenger at the back seats.
I told my Thai friend that the only reason car industries were successful in Thailand was the failure of Malaysia in trying too hard inflating the ego of a former PM.
Proton goes international ….. yes you can … if and if Proton can distribute its product free …first to Singapore and then to others ASEAN countries …. Hehehehehe
Proton is never a Malaysians pride. It is just another piece of junk that inflated our cost of living while enriching certain tiny group of cronies.
You can dream until sun rise from the east to see Proton becomes a value for money national car as long as the this crony tail remain.
I have driven three models of Proton and been satisfied with them The main point about them is not their reliability but that the ready availability of Protons has been the single biggerst cause of the traffic snarl especially in the Klang valley..
As usual we seem to have opted for the wrong priorities. Instead of a “national” car what was desperately needed was an INTEGRATED TRANSPORT system in the capital. We thouight we were starting this with the LRT. The project ought to have been an ongoing one – instead it ceased almost without warning,
KL has perhaps the most comprehensive highway system in SE Asia.but we also have traffic jams that will only get worse.
An INTEGRATED TRANSPORT SYSTEM—- unless we have this the daily traffic gridlock will remain.
Sorry… wrong spelling of my name!
There’s another disgusting side to Proton brand, the spare-parts are a rip-off… any small part or item to be replaced, its connected to another ” whole ” part which must be replaced, and the price would be trebble the price of parts replacement of Japanese vehicles…
Roaring business on spare-parts….is it not deliberate, i wonder ?
Attention all PROTON owners. The next time you window is jammed do not take it to EON.Take it to the Esso Service station at the end of Jalan Syed Putra just before the turn to MId Valley. There is a private workshop there and if you ask the mechanic to replace it with a metal lifting spare part he will do it for you.
It beats me as to why PROTON Think Tank did not think of this.
Government should never go into business. The business of the government is to govern. Also government in Malaysia has grown too big, growing into areas where it should not go and competing with the private sector. This ideological shift has its origins under the Razak-Razaliegh administration. Mahathir exploited it to create his own financial empire, supported by a bunch of cronies (a class he created) who themselves have financial empires of their own and their families.
So it is not just Proton. Proton is just coded language for everything that could go wrong that has gone wrong.
Protectionism breeds complacency (and disregard for
negative feedback from the consumer).
Melayu-developed car of pride sounds derogatory towards the Malays. Implying that it is a Malay car and thus inferior.
Racism of the hughest order.
Shouldn’t Proton be the pride and joy of Malaysians?
Jeff The Man – September 1, 2011 at 11:49 am
and then…
funny how you connect inferior and malays jeff. why?
funny how I dont read this article the way you do?.
are we even reading the same article Jeff?
Kathy – September 1, 2011 at 1:15 pm
and then again…
of course lah…different people with different argument and comprehension of that article – for me – it is a joke by Dr. KJ or whatever his name (see I forgot his name, even though dah baca td)…similar to history – differnt opinion!
Proton just proton not much but so many less compared to others! better spell it as BERPOTONG made in Malaysia!
Mass ownership of the motor car is NOT the way forward. The disaster is unfolding before our eyes in our capital. If we do not go for an INTEGRATED TRANSPORT SYSTEM in the Klang Valley, our capital will not be the promised “garden city of lights” but a mammoth headache of traffic gridlock. You can bet on this.
Assalamualaikum tuan syed of proton…itu pun klu u baca din punya blog. Sy slh so rang yg sokong proton..sy beli saga 1989 guna sampai habis bayar…then sy beli waja tahun 11.09.2001. Harga 70000+20000 bunga for 7 years. Bila habis byr harga tinggal 25000 nk bli kete lain tk mampu guna terus. Sy dah 9 Kali tukar motor utk keempat cermin waja…sy Ada ramai Kwan yg guna waja yg Ada masalah yg sama mcm kata tdm melaymudah lupa, melayu mudah mengampun n melayu kurang seme!!! Actually berapa harga nk hasilkn sebuah kete? Tk bole kurangker?? Ngapa tk laku kt luar negara???
Being one of its former BOD, can Pak Din give some comments/real story on what had actually happened in Proton especially in their Vendors program??
___________
That was long ago (1986-88). There is nothing wrong with the Vendors program. It is the attitude of bumiputra vendors who expect PROTON to accept whatever they produce, even it is shoddy work.–Din Merican
Proton was set up as ‘money tree’. you got shake it, and money will drop from the tree. Remember, Bank Bumi logo ? This what actually TDM doing it, create a ‘money tree’ and all vendor are cronies of TDM/UMNO. When Proton no money, MoF pump money in or Proton do not pay taxes… did Proton ever pay income-tax yearly? I hardly hear about it. So, the crumbs go to MCA n MIC. That is why VW can not work together with Proton. Because first, VW will take in reliable vendors, not ‘ali baba vendor’. In Proton, I can say all that CEO, COO, CCC or what ever…. no brain. Proton is just another Mitshibushi overseas assembly car factory. Proton until today, buy second hand model parts to re-look the car, and claim they make it. This is just like any bloody computer or Nike shoe company. ‘Melayu-make car’ ….. ha ha ha ha……. And I like the video.