IF Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has his way, Malaysia will once again have a national car.

“If we can’t get Proton back, I am thinking of starting a new national car,” he told executives of Pakatan Harapan (PH) media organs at a dialogue at the Al-Bukhary Foundation yesterday.

If carried out, the plan would be the latest example of Dr Mahathir overturning another policy of the Najib administration which PH defeated in GE14.

Proton, which was started in 1983, was a cornerstone policy of Dr Mahathir’s first term in office and part of his drive to turn the country into an industrial powerhouse.

He opposed former prime minister Najib Razak’s decision to sell the company to Chinese firm Zhejiang Geely Holdings Group.

In the interview, Dr Mahathir said all countries, including developed ones, protected their national car makers, so it was not wrong for Malaysia to do the same.

“Korea takes care of its national cars. There is not a single Proton in Korea. There are no other cars in Korea.

“In Japan, it is the same. They take care of their car makers’ interests there,” said the former Proton chairman, who set up the national marque in 1983.

Dr Mahathir said Proton was sold to Zhejiang Geely for only RM170 million in cash although it had billions of ringgit in assets.

Geely took up a 49.9% stake in Proton for RM460.3 million.

The RM170 million was a cash injection while the remaining RM290 million came from the valuation of Geely’s popular SUV, Boyue, which it will produce in Malaysia under the Proton name.

But not everyone shares Dr Mahathir’s nostalgia about Proton, and ‎even some of his colleagues in PH would be troubled by the prime minister’s desire to start another national car project.

While they were in the opposition, these PH politicians supported a policy of reducing customs and excise duties on imported cars and promoting greater competition for the local car industry.

Critics also believed that the national car project was the best example of misplaced patriotism of the Dr Mahathir years. – May 19, 2018.