MAA: Proton vendors must be competitive or go bust!
Aishah Ahmad of the Malaysian Automotive Association tells the Proton Vendors Association to suck it in! Or up! Or whatever!
A-ma-zing, not three months after Dr Wan Mohamed called for very restrictive measures against cars of certain capacities and Vehicle-End-of-Life policies, the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) has called for vendors to be less “Proton-centric”!
How’s that for a knockout blow? Now that champion Mahaleel’s effectively out of the picture, these sycophants don’t seem to have a voice anymore - even Mahathir’s given up on Proton (yay!).
Is this a precursor to a genuine opening up of the automotive industry?
Sweet, long sought-after words:
MAA president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said on Sept 6 many of the 278 Malaysian vendors and 3,000 sub-vendors had been too “Proton-centric”.
“If they do not change (this mindset), they would find it very tough (to weather challenges). Other manufacturers will not be as tolerant or understanding as Proton,” she said at the AmInvestment Group Investors Conference in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 6.
“They (other manufacturers) will look at (product) prices, quality and capability. They will not give a view on how to develop them (vendors) like Proton.”
In other words, grow up or lose out: a definite warning to be more proactive about quality and competitiveness, and if this announcement is anything to go by, we may actually expect some good news from the up-coming but oft-delayed NAP.
