YOURSAY | ‘Pity those Proton employees. Head you win, tail I lose.’

Report: Proton staff, vendors told to choose between Dr M and Najib

Fogbom: This is an interesting crisis for Proton's management.

Forced to ‘choose’ between being cut off from future government support or caving in and ousting Dr Mahathir Mohamad as adviser (or whatever he is), I'd be in favour of the former, with Mahathir still there.

For Dr M, being forced to make Proton work without further government support may just possibly create the drive and entrepreneurial spirit that will turn it into a South Korean success story.

Come on, Dr M, make Proton meritocratic. Take on board Malaysians of all races into your design, engineering, finance and management teams.

Get Malaysian Chinese and Indian successes like Genting, Berjaya, Maxis on board with the requisite cash injection/share swaps/equity/loan capital and make Proton really Malaysian.

Not a Malay operation which forced all Malaysians to pay the second-highest car taxes in the world (after Singapore - whose excuse is that it has limited land and uses the Certificate of Entitlement or COE bought through open bidding). Let’s man up and make Proton work.

Maybe this can be an opportunity for Dr M to start revitalising Proton without government support and cash injections. Like MAS, a rigorous review of its operations, followed by a ground-up restructuring which will involve painful retrenchments is necessary. Umno must be firmly kept out.

Proton should plan to make future cars, not churn out more of today's cars. I refer to autonomous (A) or self-drive cars and fully-electric (E) cars. They should aim to make A and E cars 50 percent of production, by a set date, say 2025. They need to get government support on subsidies for purchasers, at least for a limited period.

Dr M could tie up with Tesla (Elon Musk) for electric cars and Google for autonomous cars. This may be Mahathir's lasting legacy for Malaysia and it is fitting that he makes Proton-AE work, since we paid like hell to get here.

KnockKnock: There's always a beginning for a fresh start. It may look cloudy for most, yet to some a glass of water is either half full or half empty.

Leave out politicians altogether and business will bloom. All businesses that are falling apart in this country are due to political interference.

Dont Just Talk: If meritocracy had been at play in Malaysia over the years, Proton would not have been left in this pathetic state of financial affairs.

Look at Hyundai of South Korea, their global market sales have increased by leaps and bound, even in the US market but the demand for Proton models, despite Malaysian government support, is still lacking way behind over the Japanese car models.

Choosing either Mahathir or Najib Razak is no longer an option, such being the case Proton should either be left on its own to survive or just pack up and wind it up.

Donplaypuks: Over the years, Proton, like MAS, has been bailed out three times, costing the rakyat billions of ringgit. Petronas money was also used.

Each time there was a foreign buyer, Mahathir blocked the buyout to save his face. He even interfered in the recent restructuring of MAS by demanding that no one be laid off.

Now that MAS has bitten the bullet, why should the government pump in another RM1.5 billion into Proton to rescue what is clearly an ongoing saga of disaster for the country? This will not restore Proton to profitability, so it's a bottomless pit of losses.

The government must allow a local or foreign party to take control of Proton through open tender and turn it around. They can keep the name Proton, but the new owner must be allowed to trim Proton into a lean and mean outfit.

Stuff national pride - that is a red herring and an ego trip no one can afford. The bottom line comes first.

P Dev Anand Pillai: They should do the right thing by looking out for a Japanese automaker to take over. They are known for being able to do business in Malaysia despite the known hurdles.

Anonymous 2299391436500295: Indeed, Malaysians should have a better choice of cars – and politicians.

Visu: An economy that is built on flawed policies will never last the test of time. Mahathir was lucky in the perpetuation of this flawed policy only because Petronas brought in untold wealth for him to waste with impunity.

Now the economic pie is shrinking and the price of oil is at an all-time low, the struggle to upkeep such bias would be disastrous as the people who constitute this biased system are not creative and intellectually disabled to contribute to a new order.

The change in governance is imminent as those who made up and parasitised in this flawed system will not only be without a job but also without any aptitude to chase another dream.

Wira: Pity those Proton employees. Head you win, tail I lose. Either way, Proton is not competitive and should have folded long ago.

The Analyser: Proton has never been anything more than an egotistical indulgence of one man for which the country has paid dearly.

To continue to support this farce is little more than high-class blackmail. I've asked before, "How many of those 40,000 workers are 'real' Malaysians?”

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.