I am writing in reply to Jon Thomson's letter on Proton.

When I was working as a dentist in Sydney, the Proton Waja was being launched. I had the opportunity to meet members of Thomson's marketing team, especially those employed from Malaysia to take care of the marketing arm in Australia. I became fairly good friends with some of them.

I am a Malaysian and I drive a Proton Waja 1.6X. What irks me is not so much the amount of money I've spent to support my local car industry but that I can blatantly see my support being misused by those in command of our motor industry.

Look at some of the Australian marketing executives. When I was with them in Sydney, they were not only seeming to be drawing large salaries but were living a lifestyle that was far from commensurate with the company's performance.

For instance, one of the marketing staff was staying at a city centre apartment in Sydney, of which the rent was more than my salary as a dental officer. How many Wajas were sold that year? I would doubt if Proton managed to even sell 200 Wajas that year.

I agree that the Waja and Gen2 are good products. They have features which are not present in some of their competitors, particularly the Korean ones. What cuts the Koreans above the Malaysians is that the former are thoroughly committed to make their product succeed and are doing their country proud by actually selling some cars.

I think most would agree that most Malaysians would like to see Proton succeed. After all, every motorist in Malaysia has paid greatly to support the Malaysian national car project. I have bought cars in Australia.

An Australian does not need to take out a seven-year loan which deducts half of his annual income to pay for a car. The experience of shopping for a new car in Australia is like buying a home appliance, for example a toaster. Nothing compared to what we have to go through in Malaysia.

Even if we in Malaysia have bought imported cars, we've contributed more than twice the car's value through taxation because of the national car project. What angers Malaysians is that those in charge of the national car industry continue to make a total shenanigan of the whole affair.

The motorist in Malaysia definitely deserves better than what has happened to Proton.