As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on July 02, 2015
1. Competition is good, says the CEO of the Malaysin Automotive Institute (The Edge Malaysia, June 22, 2015). It will benefit consumers and allow local industry players to explore export market.
2. It is therefore good that the Malaysian automotive industry should compete with cars imported from Japan, Korea, China and Germany. Incidentally these countries impose conditions and standards which prevent Malaysian cars from being imported into their countries to compete. So the consumers in Japan, Germany, Korea and China cannot enjoy the benefits of competition like their Malaysian counterparts
3. Some of us may have noticed that in sports for example competition is between people of the same category by age or in football by division. In golf handicaps are given so that the competition would be fair.
4. It is always the same in all competitions. We compare apple to apple and not apple to oranges.
5. Apparently in Malaysia some people may not have noticed it. They have not noticed that the Malaysian industrial capacity is not at the same level as Japan, Korea, China or Germany. We may win in a Quran competition but not, I think, in the automotive field. We do well in badminton and squash but not in football.
6. However if competing is what we have to do to benefit the consumers, we will do it. After all there are more consumers than people in the automotive industry.
7. If we lose we may have to close down. A hundred thousand or so workers, engineers and managers will lose their jobs. Their families will suffer. But that is alright because the consumers will get better cars at lower prices from foreign countries.
8. Of course a lot of Malaysia’s money would flow out to the rich countries and their workers will get higher incomes. But it is Government policy to support imports and we have to accept it.
9. So let us compete and let our consumers enjoy the benefit. The people who lose their job would not be able to consume. But that is a small price to pay.
