Last month, on June 11, while in Tokyo for a state visit to Japan, Mahathir remarked that he aimed to establish a new national car company, given that Chinese auto company Geely has acquired a 49.9 percent stake in Proton.

In a sign of his keenness on the project, the idea was floated again, during his state visit to Indonesia, on June 28, where Mahathir spoke with Indonesian President Jokowi Widodo about jointly developing the car.

Malaysians react negatively

The idea of a new national car did not go down well among many Malaysians.

According to The Star Online, many Malaysians reacted to the initial news on June 11 by voicing their refusal to go along with the project.

Mahathir throws the lamp at Malaysians

Eventually, Mahathir reacted to the negative sentiments by hitting back in a blog post written in Malay on July 16.

In a pointed tone, Mahathir wrote:

"I am told no one wants to see a second national car. It is enough that Proton is said to be a failure."

Proceeding to slam Malaysians on their choice of cars, he added:

"Malaysians prefer to buy imported cars, including those from China. Their choice is Japanese cars and those with a lot of money (choose) German cars."

Mahathir noted that previously, right after World War II, Japanese cars used to be mocked for their poor quality on the level of a "Milo tin".

“However from that ‘Milo tin’ car comes a variety of the Toyota, Nissan and Suzuki models that we use now.”

Attributing it to Japan barring the import of foreign-produced cars, Mahathir said this led to the improvement of locally-produced cars which were eventually exported.

However, this would not happen in Malaysia as "...we are already rejecting the idea of a second national car early on, and thereby, [stopping] any suggestion of having the private sector produce cars. Surely, the government will not have a government-owned automotive industry."

[related_story]

Mahathir also moaned about how this would lead to the eventual death of Proton:

"Our cars will continue to be made with Milo tins forever ... No matter the type of car, its country of origin, whether it is of good quality of the ‘Milo tin’ variety; cars can all be brought into Malaysia. These are produced by giants and fills the Malaysian car market until Proton is buried.

In the end, Proton is sold to foreigners. There is no more national car, no more automotive industry. Workers, engineers, managers have lost their jobs. Everything deteriorates."

Reserving his most barbed statements for the end of his post however, Mahathir concluded:

"Malaysia would become a nation of consumers, of paddy farmers, and of fishermen. No matter, this is what we want and what we will get.

Just forget about Vision 2020."

Top image from Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad Facebook