Proton is going to be yet another event after Perwaja that is going to have a major impact on our country. I cannot but feel very strongly about it.

Proton is now a cornered counter with government-related parties cornering the market and holding the price just above RM9. This is an act of acting in concert and rigging the market price.

In the first instance, the total amount of shares held by government-related parties which includes Khazanah, Petronas and Valuecap and various other fund managers that are now acting in concert, is far in excess of 60 percent of the total shares issued by Proton..

Being a cornered counter, there are specific provisions under the Securities Industry Act that would require the Malaysian Securities Exchange Board (MSEB) to step in and protect the interest of the investing public.

Why is this not happening?

Proton now appears to be struggling for its last moments before it gets completely knocked out by its competitors, self-serving politicians and their cronies. All of them stand to profit from the death of this national albatross.

I had been made to understand a few politically-connected corporate vultures and eagles are already swarming Proton critically eyeing the carcass-to-be. More of this below.

The ultimate losers would be the people on the street through their losses on the stock market and their investments through fund managers and unit trusts. The livelihood of thousands of vendors will be at stake.

Other implications could be even more far-ranging such as direct loss of employment and various other opportunity costs to the government and the people.

The UK-based Lotus, a Proton technology and design subsidiary, has been incurring losses for quite some time already and is still carrying the stigma of difficulty in fulfilling a major design contract with a key customer. Proton's Gen2 is supposed to be a major break through in uplifting the company's image and regaining its self-confidence.

However this is not to be as the Gen2's engine appears to have some initial problems with some of the parts that Proton had outsourced to manufacture. This is not to mention generally poor quality control as compared to other competing makes such as Hyundai and KIA and the Japanese brands.

The very competitive pricing of Hyundai and KIA plus their new design and technology they offer appears to be the final death knell for Proton's strong selling models such as the Wira and Perdana and even the controversial Gen2.

Proton adopted the wrong strategy in not producing the family version of the Gen2 first as this market is bigger and more sensitive to immediate availability. As a result of this, many potential Proton customers have opted for competing Koreans and Japanese models.

There appears to be a whole gamut of problems in Proton itself which finally manifested in the showdown between Abu Hassan Kendut, chairman of the Proton board and Tengku Mahaleel Ariff, its chief executive officer.

It is indeed a very sad and helpless situation for Proton and all of us. It appears that some major decision would be made before the end of this month.

Personally, a person with the stature of Abdul Rahman Omar of Perodua, who just declared his retirement as that company's managing director would be just the man for the job. Let us hope he can, and is willing, to help mitigate this monumental national loss.

Apart form reading about the denial by General Motors that it is considering buying into Proton, corporate circle are now abound with rumours that local 'corporate vultures' (for want of better expression) have been jostling each other for a slice of the Proton spoils that may be made available for local players at special pricing or using a 'special off-set formulae'.

Some of the old connections of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamd appear to be regrouping and are visibly active again.

The scramble for this possible opportunity has heightened with speculations that Mahaleel has been given a package to exit his office with honour by the end of this month. This will enable the Proton board to proceed with its intention of disposing the loss-making Lotus.

To fill the vacuum created by the disposal, it appears that Proton will be identifying a new substantial shareholder with a strong franchise and advanced technology to bring to the table.

This entire Proton debacle provides a test case as to how corporate governance and transparency will be upheld under the leadership of our new Prime Minister Abdulah Ahmad Badawi. Let us all keep ourselves alert and our eyes wide open.