Is it true?

It is mind-boggling to think that we have our national investment company, Khazanah Nasional, to thank if such rumours turn out to be true! But of course such news would fail to come ashore here, thanks to our media censorship - unfortunately we Malaysians have to read of such failings in the blogs, which have come under fire of late. And if blogs were proven to be more reliable source of information than our mainstream media, so be it; it is sad that as our nation celebrates its 50th Merdeka Day, we still have a government which tries to blackout news of such importance. Of course if it turns out to be true...

Well, even if the story is not entirely true - that the sale of one of the MV Agusta brands to BMW netted an amount less than the reported 93 million Euros - it would still make Khazanah Nasional the laughing stock of the investment fraternity. It would look like Proton had not done their homework, or the sale was done in extreme haste. Or was it? Is there more behind the scenes? Did someone make money out of this deal at the expense of Proton? More questions are being raised as the deal unfolds...

While Proton reels from yet another quarterly loss, little has been made public regarding its efforts to rope in Volkswagen AG to prop up the ailing company: I am wondering whether they are truly still at the negotiating table. And as usual there is some glossiness projected over the new Persona model and exports of its cars to China and an Egyptian escapade.

Maybe it is time to put Proton out of its misery. And with that maybe Malaysians will be entitled to something it has been deprived of for nearly 25 years - an affordable and reliable car.