In the wake of the reappointment of Dr. Mahathir as Proton's chairman has led to another set back for the Malaysian automotive industry. As expected by many observers that if Dr. Mahathir is reappointed as the chairman of Proton he will exercise his influence over the company and the government. Since his reappointment he has requested US$2 billion from the Government to pay for all the research and development Proton has done. This of course to any sensible person would sound ridiculous since Proton is a private company and the Government should have nothing to do with how Proton performs.
It is widely expected that Dr. Mahathir will ask the Government to provide some sort of protection for Proton again. Proton has struggled with their new models in the recent years and saw their market share decline substantially. Proton being his pet project since the 1980s he was not going to let it close down without some kind of help. The problem is the help that he seeks is again from the Government which in turn gets money from the tax payers. Asking any man on the street whether they would want to see Proton be bailed out and the answer is a flat "NO!". The average Malaysian is sick and tired of having to pay high prices for something that is a necessity and not a luxury.
It won't be long before the Government will cave into the demands of Dr. Mahathir and impose some sort of protection for Proton at the expense of the other car makers who have invested billions to build their facilities in Malaysia.
The Government's original plan of liberalizing the automotive industry will definitely take a step back and that also means the end of lowering import taxes on cars. Foreign car companies who invested millions in their production or assembly plants will feel betrayed by the Government. No one would blame them for wanting to relocate their facilities to India or Indonesia where the market is bigger and they would not face such inconsistent policies from the Government.
No one wants to pay more than they have to for a simple car, but in Malaysia it is a luxury to own car no thanks to a certain individual who has their own personal agenda.
