Can you spot the difference??

Can you spot the difference?

by Woei Shang Ang

 

 

Former PM Tun Dr. Mahathir slammed government for too stingy and did not focus on R&D yesterday, he also claimed that this is the reason why Proton is left behind by other major car makers in the World.

And what I want to say is: "this is so true!"

I can't agree more with Dr. M. Yes, indeed this is so true, nobody can argue about this.

But why Dr. M only realises this after he stepped down as our Prime Minister?

Under his 22 years of premiership (for proton was 20 years, Proton was incorporated on 1983), did Proton do a lot of research or our government was very generous in funding R&D?

Further, he claimed that Proton has achieved a lot even with a very small amount of R&D fund provided by the government.

Is this true?

 

Let's see what are the achievement that he mentioned and proud with,

I cropped some picture for the cars made by Proton during Dr. M's premiership,

and make a comparison with the cars made by other car makers (so you can see what kind of R&D

had been done during Dr. M's premiership)

 

 

 

Proton Saga（top）v. Mitsubishi Mirage 4th Generation（bottom）

 

 

 

Proton Tiara（top） v. Citroen AX（bottom）

 

 

 

Proton Wira（top） v. Mitsusbishi Mirage 5th Generation（bottom）

 

 

 

Proton Satria（top） v. Mitsubishi Colt CAO（bottom）

 

 

 

Proton Putra（top） v. Mitsubishi Mirage Asti（bottom）

 

 

 

Proton Juara（top） v. Mitsubishi Town Box（bottom）

 

 

 

Proton Perdana（top） v. Mitsubishi Eterna（bottom）

 

Can anybody spots the difference?

Sorry, I can't, except for the badges of the cars.

That is the only difference.

 

Now the question is, are these "re-badged cars" make you proud?

Was "re-badging" the main field for the researches done during Dr. M's premiership?

 

Yes, what we can see is just "re-badged car",

the only thing that Proton do is to remove the badge of the other car maker,

and exchange it with our very own Proton badge (don't forget about latest production of Proton - Proton Inspira, it's another re-badged car made from Mitsubishi Lancer!),

yet, our government call these "products" as our National Cars!

 

And don't forget this, because of all these "National Cars", we have to pay more to buy a car in Malaysia (100% tax for imported cars),

this is not limited to foreign cars, it applies to our Proton cars also!

If you do some research on this, you will definitely find that Proton Car is much cheaper in foreign countries than in Malaysia.

Yes, We subsidize them to sell their car cheap in other countries!

 

Proud?

No, not at all.

Don't you feel shame on this?

I don't know about your answer, but I do, really do

 OUR NATIONAL CAR IS OUR NATIONAL SHAME!