Proton - To Protect or Not to Protect

DR MOHD NAZARI ISMAIL, I commend you for your thought provoking article "How much support are taxpayers willing to give Proton to face competition?". May I suggest you start a column, in this paper, or a blog, that makes Protectionism a major theme.

Is it necessary? where and when is it contributory? At what point does it become economically stupid? Does this enrich Malaysians or does it rob away from us, the luxury of choice?

And while at it, may I request you and your Faculty at UM, to explore the talent squeeze that faces our local industries and bring this to light. I am talking about a wide range of talent issues here from the poor standards of our graduates to the sickening hiring practices of many employers who look for talent in given segments of society. 

In my mind, this will not get you the best talent in the country. It gets you the best talent from a given segment. This, to me, is a major stumbling block to successful Innovation in this country.

I urge you, Dr Nazari, to look much deeper into questions such as:

1) Why have we not produced a world-class high performance 2L engine to spur our local automotive industry even further? How can we produce a Malaysian performance car that everyone craves to drive? 

2) Why have we not created a world-class ICT product (hardware or software) that has captured the world's imagination? How do we create the next 'Google' or 'Apple' etc.... from this land?

3) Why have we not been able to attract the many Regional HQs of MNCs into KL? Today Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, and Hong Kong continue to be their cities of choice for such offshore operations. How can we make KL a top 3 destination for any Asian Offshore HQ Operations of Global MNCs? 

4) Why, in general, is our agricultural produce still inferior in quality to even those from Thailand? How do we make Malaysian Agro Produce among the best in the world? Like Oil Palm today. Like Natural Rubber in the old days...

5) Why is our building and construction industry in such a terrible state where many buildings and roads suffer from structural flaws? 

6) Why are we so lackadaisical when it comes to QUALITY, in every aspect of our lives? How can we become one of the world's foremost quality-conscious nations?

And to readers, lets pump more questions through to Dr Nazari. Looking forward to reading your response Doc.

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