Heart2Heart: 22 Years Old, Still a Baby!

You can visit this car at Muzium Negara or see it on the road, no different! Cause Proton have been producing this model for the last 22 years!

My Teacher, Emeritus Professor Dr Mohamed Ariff, Executive Director of MIER when describing Proton, used this words "retarded baby"! A company which "should be grown up but still behave like a baby" A 22 years old company!

Bravo!! teacher, you really walk the talk! Dr Ariff was interviewed by Sin Chew on the current development in Malaysian economy and this is what he said when asked about the National Automotive Policy (NAP), quote:

過度保護國產車
得不償失

莫哈末阿里夫說，如果大馬鼓吹銷售國產車政策只對若干汽車業有利，而對整體經濟不利，那確需要深思及設法尋求解決之道。

這名曾到日本參觀的經濟學家說，日本其中一家公司每5分鐘可生產一輛汽車，生產過程全自動化，且成本只是國產車的一半，當局為何還要強迫國人購買昂貴與問題百出的國產車？市面上有更多廉宜與優質汽車。

他強調，這些都是值得深思的問題，為了保護國產車而失去全局是得不償失的。

他指出，1980年代，大馬堅持要有自己的國家汽車工業，令大馬失去很多機會；通用汽車與其他汽車大廠早在到泰國前，就表明要來本地設廠，但當時的政府因要保護國產車，導致這些汽車大廠轉往泰國，使泰國成為東方底特律。

他說，今天，普騰（PROTON,5304）雖已屆成長年齡，但在經歷22年發展後，套用別人的形容詞，還是“弱智嬰兒”（retarded baby）。

Beside that, he also said we should improve our public transport system in order to reduce our loss of productivity due to massive traffic jam, details here.

Heart2Heart says: Betui-lah! We have been subsidising Proton for 22 years! And the baby should be an adult already!

"日本其中一家公司每5分鐘可生產一輛汽車，生產過程全自動化，且成本只是國產車的一半，當局為何還要強迫國人購買昂貴與問題百出的國產車？市面上有更多廉宜與優質汽車。"

Yup! Totally agree! If not because of this NAP, my sister should be driving her dream car by now instead of always have to sayang her kilat who is always merajuk! We shouldn't lose the whole forest because of a tree!! I think we should just kill the baby! oooopps! **Sound cruel ;p