YOURSAY | ‘There is no money to pay RM1 trillion debt, but money for Dr M’s car project.’

Gov't to channel 'large sum' of funds for third national car's R&D

Wg321: Why does the government want to channel funds into research and development for the third national car project?

I thought it was supposed to be a 100 percent private sector initiative. This does not make sense. I am beginning to lose confidence in the Pakatan Harapan government.

How can you produce good quality technocrats to run any R&D when there is an overemphasis on the Islamic religion and practices instead of science and technology in national schools?

We are not being honest with ourselves.

Wira: Without Malaysians trained and being knowledgeable in the electric autonomous car industry, what do we have to attract high-tech, next-generation vehicle production investment to this country?

My former employer is a high-tech multinational company specialising in very high-end scientific instruments.

We failed to get investment in more high-end products to be transferred here because we could not find optics engineers locally, whereas our counterpart in Singapore could, including doctorate holders.

If we want the future to be made here, even by investors from outside, let’s get our people prepared for this next wave. 

Do note that Dyson has already committed billions to produce autonomous electric vehicles manufacturing in Singapore.

I know we had a bad experience with Proton. The good thing about a bad experience is that it makes us wiser not to repeat that failure.

Observer123: Last year, R&D expenditure for Volkswagen was about RM55 billion, RM40 billion for Toyota and RM25 billion for Honda.

Does Malaysia with its RM1 trillion debt to pay still have enough funds to put into R&D to compete with these big boys?

Please do not spend any taxpayers' money in this highly competitive industry. We don't stand a chance.

Man Lee: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is smart and forward-looking in many ways. But this is not one of them. This is money down the drain.

There could be so many other areas, for example, renewable energy, that could use the money. But no, Mahathir is fixated on the car project.

Anonymous 2460851488616887: What R&D? Proton was given billions before and what came out of it?

Sub-standard vehicles that cannot compete on the world stage.

Not only Malaysian taxpayers’ money is used to fund it but Malaysians have to be deprived of better options just to support Proton.

Use the money for scholarships to send our student overseas to learn, or use the money to upgrade the education system.

Anonymous_b3cdcd05: This seems to be a continuation of the mess that we inherited from Mahathir when he left in 2003.

Sub-standard Proton cars kept afloat with protectionist policies, lopsided toll concessions, the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) billion-ringgit fiasco, Perwaja Steel's RM10 billion bailout, the corruption-tainted Bakun dam project, the infamous crooked bridge and a string of others that taxpayers are still saddled with.

Have those who now speak of reviving the crooked bridge forgotten the millions paid as compensation by taxpayers when then-prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi terminated the project not too long ago?

No other Malaysians other than Mahathir seem to have expressed interest in Proton 2.0. Why must taxpayers foot the R&D for the third national car if it is to be solely a project under private enterprise?

We were told that the national debt exceeded RM1 trillion and many of us sacrificed to donate to the Tabung Harapan on this account.

Many of Harapan's election manifesto promises have not been fulfilled or shelved due to our financial constraints and even the recent budget was one of belt-tightening for most sectors and had little to offer long-suffering Malaysians caught in sky-rocketing living costs.

The Harapan government is making the same mistakes as its predecessor if it proceeds to abuse its power to bankroll Proton 2.0 under the guise of R&D for the third national car.

This project that has seen overwhelming objections from Malaysians seems plainly a self-indulgent Mahathir pet project, but will he be around to bear the burden if it ends up like the failed Proton 1.0 baby we inherited and kept bailing out with public funds to keep it afloat?

Anonymous_e7326a38: Enough of this insanity! Nobody wants the third national car and we do not need another loss-making company that requires protectionist tariff to survive.

The third national car will come with perpetual lopsided and overpriced contracts that will take another generation to reverse.

Anonymous_4171: It looks like this obsession is not going away. Taxpayers' money is still being utilised.

People donated to the Harapan Fund thinking that the government does not have sufficient funds due to its debt, but now the government has money for R&D and that too, for the third national car.

It looks like we have all been fooled by the Harapan government.

No NSC directive: Chin Tong calls Hisham’s bluff

A New Dawn: Former defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein, put yourself in the shoes of a soldier ordered to go to Yemen to fight with or 'protect' Saudi armed forces from the Yemenis.

You said the order came from the National Security Council (NSC), which, as the name suggests, only has a mandate to provide security to our nation, i.e., our homeland, not thousands of kilometres away in the Middle East.

From now on, we can be quite certain of how the Armed Forces will vote in future general elections unless you joined the Armed Forces to die in somebody else’s war.

Anonymous_1527925538: Sending our troops overseas without proper authorisation is very serious.

We should set up a royal commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of this so that in future no one makes such a serious mistake.

RR: The question is, why send troops to a Muslim country to fight against fellow Muslims?

Let the Yemen Muslims sort out their own internal problems by democratic channels, rather than having Malaysia take part in their sectarian violence at the expense of Malaysians, just because the Saudis wanted it and that too without cabinet approval.

It is pathetic to see the children and women dying of starvation in this conflict. We should instead mediate for a peaceful settlement by applying the tenets of Icerd, which is pertinent to this case.

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