I refer to the Malaysiakini report Proton needs foreign partner: Muhyiddin.

As a Malaysian resides in UAE Dubai for almost 2 years and travelling to and fro to work for almost 90km daily on the streets, I can recall that I have not seen more than five Proton Wiras and not even a single Proton Waja on the road here. It is no doubt that Proton is not selling well here in UAE.

As UAE is virtually a tax-free country, a Toyota Yaris (Vios third-generation in Malaysia) is selling for not more than RM52,000 here and a Honda Civic would cost only approximately RM56,000.

I guess Proton is selling much cheaper than these prices though I haven’t really checked up on their selling prices here. Even with Proton’s lower prices here, not much people would consider them as there are other more reliable brands within the same range of price. This clearly shows that Proton has not built up a reputation over all these years.

In Malaysia, the government has imposed ridiculous tax structures for other brands of automobiles consequently resulting in Proton becoming the most affordable brand in Malaysia.

Imagine if without these taxes for other cars, do you think most Malaysians will buy a Proton or rather a much more reliable brand, ie, Toyota, Honda, etc.

According to Proton’s website , only 11 countries out of the 146 World Trade Organisation members can design and manufacture a vehicle from the ground up with the latest technology, meeting world standards.

In 2002, Malaysia became the 11th country. For god’s sake! Most Malaysian don’t really care whether or not Malaysia can build her own brand of automobiles.

Moreover, with Proton’s kind of quality, most Malaysians would rather prefer to own imported cars if they are financially capable though the Malaysian government has made it almost impossible for most Malaysians.

Recently, Proton announced that they have made a profit of RM236 millions for the previous quarter. What they did not mention is that Proton also received a ‘research and development’ grant from the government worth RM194 million which, combined with the tax benefit, means that it made zero profit.

And all of this on the back of a 37 percent increase in sales over the previous year. Proton's disappointing results show that the company, despite everything that it has done by way of cost cutting, releasing new models, ‘refreshing’ old models and introducing other customer enhancement changes, is still making an operating loss.

This fact clearly shows that after more than 20 years in the industry, Proton has failed to advance in order to keep its competitiveness among the world’s automobile manufacturers.

It remains as a ‘Kampung king’ in the shed of the Malaysian government. Proton is the Malaysian brand that bullies Malaysians only.