I read with absolute disgust the piece on MAS' head honcho Tajudin Ramli in the Sunday edition of the New Straits Times. Here is a man who brought shame to our national carrier with the ever burgeoning losses, but the NST decided to go all out to praise him, to deflect the rakyat's disgust and potential aberration over the bailout of his equity stake in MAS by using the rakyat's money.

The prime minister, in justifying the sale of the government/Bank Negara Malaysia's stake in MAS to Tajudin then, had said that it is better for MAS to be run by a private owner as he puts his capital at risk and will, therefore, better manage the business.

The PM even had the gall to say that RM8 a share is a good buying price although the market price of MAS is hovering around RM3.80. Brunei recently sold its MAS shares at RM4 each.

The NST article purposely excluded the deteriorating profit and loss and financial positions of MAS to date. It is a ridiculous effort to shore up the image of the prime minister and his failed policies which are crumbling like domino, i.e. the Perwaja affair, Indah Water, Bakun, Petronas' bailout of Proton, to name a few.

Why do I say Proton will be and is a failure? Despite being the national car, prices are creeping up like nobody's business. It only looks cheap because the financing has been made flexible, i.e. up to seven years repayment, etc., whereas the reality is that prices of non-national cars are almost half of what Proton is offering, if not for the ridiculously high duties imposed on those CBUs or CKDs.

Now the government is talking about "strategic alliance" by offering "auto technology" to the other automobile global players.

In the first place, what technology can Proton offer to the global auto players, i.e. DaimlerChrysler and Ford? And talking about these global auto players transferring their technology to Japan, my question is - for donkey's years, Proton has been in partnership with Mitsubishi of Japan, so why is the main component (the engine) still being imported from Mitsubishi?

The very same people who sold Proton to Petronas have now entered into a joint venture with Honda Japan to manufacture Honda Civic in Malaysia. Anticipating zero prospects (with the Asean Free Trade Agreement nearing), they dump Proton on Petronas and secure Honda instead. Where is their loyalty to the national car? Now they run to "orang asing" (our PM's favourite word) for cover.

Today Petronas has been forced to become an investment-holding company with interests in property (Putrajaya), shipping (MISC) and automobile (the latest being the bailout of Proton and the million-ringgit annual sponsorship of the Formula 1 race).