Did Najib sell Proton to Chinese because it was Mahathir's brainchild?

Touted by Malaysia’s former premier as his brainchild, the struggling state-linked car manufacturer is now almost half-owned by a Chinese firm, a life lesson in the perils of subsidising ‘national icon’ industries

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China’s Geely Automobile Holdings recently bought a 49.9 per cent stake in Proton, Malaysia’s national car manufacturer. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:32am, 12 Feb 2018Updated: 8:22pm, 3 Jul 2018

Has Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak washed his hands of the home-grown car manufacturer Proton just because it is the brainchild of his mentor-turned-arch rival Mahathir Mohamad? Any such assertions are “just lies”, Najib said last week as he defended the government’s move to sell a 49.9 per cent stake in the automaker to China’s Geely Automobile Holdings.

The sale in 2017 was merely a precondition the government set to continue injecting funds into the embattled company, Najib said. “We have given loans, capital injection, and incentives,” the premier said at the launch of a new automotive research cluster in the Proton campus in the state of Perak.

“We made it a condition, though, if Proton wants to continue to develop, it has no choice but to choose a strategic partner.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, right, arrives at a 1Malaysia Development Berhad event at Putra Mosque in Putrajaya. Photo: EPA

He added: “If people say that we don’t help Proton, then that is just lies.”

Najib’s comments were the most biting defence of the controversial sale amid signs Mahathir – the 92-year-old former premier now spearheading the opposition – is poised to make it a key issue in the coming general election. Mahathir in 2016 crossed aisles to take on Najib after declaring he had lost faith in the prime minister.