The wheel of fortune is spun and the flamboyant and blunt-speaking Proton boss Tengku Mahaleel Ariff in now out of a job.

Is he a 'sacred cow' who has to be slaughtered in order for Proton to move on in face of stiff competition from foreign vehicles which are ahead in terms of quality and price?

Is the removal of the Proton chief also a slap in the wrist for the former prime minister who backed the former all the way when he was the PM. Being the adviser of Proton now, how silly it would look if Dr Mahathir Mohamad can't protect his protg from being removed.

The war of words between Mahathir and Rafidah Aziz seems to have come full circle with the removal of the Proton chief who seems to have been made a convenient scapegoat to appease the crowd.

To be fair, Tengku Mahaleel had a point when he said the indiscriminate distribution of APs had caused Proton sales to decline. But the public is not complaining as they are spoilt for choice with regards to foreign cars which their hard-earned money can buy.

The problem with the former chieftain of Proton is that just like other chieftains who had fell from grace, they think that they are like institutions which cannot be removed. But history has shown otherwise.

Just ask Tajuddin Ramli, Halim Saad and others before them on how they lost their positions despite government help. It takes a man of great strength and business acumen to lead a company out of recession to success and Malaysia seems to be lacking in that field.

One can only hope and pray that the government has learned its lesson well with regards to using taxpayers money to bail out financially distressed cronies out of their rat holes. These former chieftains ran their companies like their own personal fiefdoms knowing they could count on the government to bail them out when in trouble.

Chieftains who abuse their power should face justice for their misdeeds and be replaced with competent CEOs who can take our national companies to new heights with national interest as their agenda.

Such positions should not be making personal wealth at the expense of shareholders and the taxpayers.