International Trade and Industry Radifah Aziz, in her defence of AP permits for auto imports, 'racialises' an issue that has nothing, or little to do with race. The excuse of using AP permits to help poor bumiputeras 'catch up' with rich Chinese lacks all sense of logic.

How will poor bumiputeras benefit from higher car prices? How many poor bumiputeras actually own an auto parts manufacturing business? The only ones that will benefit are the already rich bumiputera suppliers of Proton car parts.

I, for one, am sick and tired of politicians playing the age-old race card to justify their policies. It is true that Proton was started to expand Malay involvement in manufacturing and to increase Malay capacity in technical expertise.

But after 20 years Proton remains uncompetitive and relies on government protection to retain its local market share. Why?

Firstly, local suppliers - those whose secured contracts with Proton via contacts in high places (instead of by their technical merit) - did not improve their own efficiency in production. Proton continued to absorb their high production costs.

Secondly, Proton and its local suppliers did not really benefit much for the technology transfers from Mitsubishi or the other partners. Local technological capacity did not increase and there was an over reliance on foreign partners.

And thirdly, despite reporting a high research and development (R&D) expenditure, Proton's results are dismal. Only recently did they come up with their own car engine. Some estimate that Proton is 15 to 20 years behind the technology frontier firms.

The main culprit for Proton's woes is simple - economist KS Jomo calls it the 'carrot without the stick' problem whereby certain firms are given the 'carrot' - special protection and benefits - without the imposition of performance conditions (the stick).

Thus, you have companies like Proton which continue to enjoy government protection without making any efficiency or competitive gains. You have 'world class' companies without world class standards.

Of course, you can trace all these problems back to cronyism, a Malaysian institution.

These policies are not sustainable. While I support local industry and protection of infant industries so that they can catch up with the giant multinationals, 20 years, as in Proton's case, is too long a time.

Why can't the government just admit that Proton has major problems and force structural changes to make it more competitive?

Blaming race inequality, wealthy Chinese and poor bumiputeras will certainly not improve Proton's standing.