Najib hails Proton as national pride

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Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today called Proton a national pride and wished the country's first carmaker a happy 30th anniversary.

 

"National pride. Always has a place on my desk, and in my heart Happy 30th anniversary," he tweeted, together with a picture of an encased Proton Iriz model on his desk.

 

Kebanggaan negara. Sentiasa ada tempat di atas meja saya, dan di hati saya. Selamat Ulang Tahun ke-30 #Proton

Posted by Najib Razak on  Thursday, 9 July 2015

Najib's tweet comes a week after former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad lamented Putrajaya's plan to liberalise the automobile industry, which would open up local carmakers to foreign competition.

Mahathir, who is also the Proton chairperson, sarcastically said that it didn't matter if Malaysians lost their jobs due to the plan, as long as they could get cheap cars.

Mahathir and Najib are currently at loggerheads, with the former calling for the latter to quit office.

Najib has retorted, by accusing Mahathir of masterminding allegations that RM2.6 billion had been deposited into his accounts.

Due to their ongoing battle, Mahathir has received less positive attention on local mainstream media, and has become a villain.

Genuine complaints from taxi drivers

Major mainstream papers today carried full page advertisements of Mahathir thanking Malaysians for supporting Proton, as well as another full page advertisement on promotions by the carmaker.

Last month, it was alleged that TV3 had resorted to attacking Mahathir via a series of reports running down Proton.

The series of reports on TV3 quoted various taxi associations and taxi drivers who had complained about bad conditions of the Proton cars.

TV3 however denied the reports had anything to do with the Najib-Mahathir feud, and said it was merely highlighting genuine complaints from taxi drivers.



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