Ervan’s Weltanschauung

Is having a nice bowl of Bi Bim Bap… yummy…

Rice, minced beef, veges, seaweed, egg, and that special hot sauce, all mixed in a very hot stone bowl, and I am smiling all the way……

Yummy!

This past one week was nothing but the Tun Mahathir vs Rafidah Aziz battle. Not a day passes by without some kind of comments from Tun and Rafidah. All has been revealed or supposedly all, but well, Tun did mention that he will reveal more, when the time is right.

Nothing against Tun, but this is getting tiring. But I guess he wants to clear his names. What with the mention of his son as one of the recipients for AP. As I read through the news, one could not help noticing that Tun is unhappy because of the APs, Proton’s market share dropped.

To understand this whole issue, we have to go back to 1985. That was when Proton was first launched. It was an affordable car for most Malaysians. The price back then was around RM 20,000, making it the most affordable car. It’s nearest contender, a Toyota Corolla was only a few thousand ringgit dearer. And I think the Nissan Sunny is still cheaper than a Corolla and was the most popular car at that time. But still, out of patriotism, and nationalistic spirit, Malaysians flocked the showrooms for their Protons. They drove home with their own national car, the Proton Saga, eventhough it was a redesigned Mitsubishi Tredia.

But as Proton matures, other makes car prices slowly went up. No thanks to the taxes that were implemented to protect the baby. And so did Proton, slowly its price went up. And as of today, the new rebadged Proton Saga is called the Iswara, and it cost about RM 35,000. A 75 percent increase. One can claim inflation, copyright costs, etc, but here’s a thought. Cars in Japan generally cost nearly the same today as it were 10 years ago, but now, they come with extras like GPS, airbags, and everything (minus the kitchen sink of course!). And Tun did mention how come some imported cars were declared to cost only RM 15,000. Somehow I can believe that. I saw a Hyundai Sonata selling for Korean Won 20 million, which is roughly RM 76,000. The total cost of actually producing the Sonata could only be RM 50,000, after considering the promotion and other incidental costs.

But that’s the thing about Korean and Japanese. They are proud of their own makes. Well, okay, Koreans may be, but not Japanese. But a majority of Koreans prefer to drive Korean cars, and a majority of Japanese prefer to drive Japanese cars. Do we have the same passion with Malaysians?

Most Malaysians have no choice but to buy Proton. Those who can’t really afford it will go for Perodua. And those who can’t afford Proton are the lucky ones. Generally, Perodua cars are better than Protons. But that is another sad story of Proton. As it matures, its quality drops. The original Proton Saga is still the better Proton. Forget about the Wira, Waja, or Gen 2. You can see how many Proton drivers have to open their doors instead rolling down their window in order to get their ticket or pay the toll at the toll. Ask any Proton owners, the polite ones will quietly mention a few but would say it does not bother them. The loud ones, well, so far, all the complaints, well, you are just wasting your saliva. And how can one be patriotic on driving a problematic car? And I suspect that we build toll roads so that the windows in Proton cars get faulty faster.

I smirked when Tun mentioned that Tengku Mahaleel did a good job in steering Proton. During Mahaleel’s time, Proton is so cash rich that it could build it’s factory at Tg Malim on it’s own money. Money that Proton made that could have been used to improve it’s quality. However, is Mahaleel truly a good CEO when Proton’s sales plummeted? A few years ago, Proton commands almost 70 percent of the market share, but now it’s share is about 40 percent. At least, Proton came up with new design, but, now, it suffers from a bad image, and Malaysians, if they can afford it, they want to stay clear from Proton. No wonder Mahaleel complained about the Government’s policy on foreign cars, because by allowing cheap cars in, they are denying him from exceeding expectations in his performance appraisal.

As his baby, I understand that Tun wants his Proton to be succesful. Alas, one need to look around the world to see that there is no such thing as a national car. UK tried to assist their ailing car industry. Alas they found out only by letting the strong survive is the only way that a car company succeed. Life sucks, and even outside of biology, Darwin’s theory of evolution even applies in the corporate world.

But even now, the diversion into AP has actually made many of us lose the big picture, and it is about Proton. It has always been about Proton, mired in the mists of AP scandals. Clever diversion.

What can we do about Proton? One thing for sure, it suffers from a very bad quality image. And second, the Malaysian market is not big enough for Proton to compete globally. But I guess, I’ll continue about it at another time……

Padi kept on coming up with songs that always attract me. Songs that are really good, and meaningful. This is the latest one that I bought when I was in Jakarta. Menanti Sebuah Jawaban, and is the OST for the latest Dian Sastro’s movie, Ungu-Violet… said to be a rip off from a Korean music video.

Padi:

Aku tak bisa luluhkan hatimu
Dan aku tak bisa menyentuh cintamu
seiring jejak kakiku bergetar
Aku tak terpagut oleh cintamu
Menelusup hariku dengan harapan
Namun kau masih terdiam membisu

Sepenuhnya aku ingin memelukmu
Mendekap penuh harapan tuk mencintaimu
Setulusnya aku akan terus menunggu
Menanti sebuah jawaban tuk memilikimu

Betapa pilunya rindu menusuk jiwaku
Semoga kau tau isi hatiku
Dan seiring waktu yg terus berputar
Aku masih terhanyut dalam mimpiku

I finished reading it on the night I got the book. But only now I am digesting slowly the bits and pieces of the 608 pages of J.K. Rowling’s puzzle pieces for Book Number 7.

Few questions crop up.

1. Snape murdered Dumbledore. Was he, has he, always been with Voldermort all these time? But now, I start to wonder, did Snape kill Dumbledore out of mercy? Dumbledore is weak to begin with after drinking the potion to retrieve the locket. Was it a mercy killing?

2. R.A.B. Who the heck is this guy? And he managed to retrieve the locket, one of Voldermort’s seven Horcruxes. Sirius Black is definitely not R.A.B. But, Regulus Black? It’s possible. And reading back Order of the Phoenix, it was mentioned of a locket that no one could open found in Grimmauld Place.

3. So, there are seven Horcruxes. One is in Voldermort. One is in the diary, which Harry has destroyed (yeay!). And one is Slytherin’s ring, which Dumbledore has destroyed. Since the locket was not found, there are still four Horcruxes that Harry has to find. One is the locket with Slytherin’s, something to do with Hufflepuff, and Ravenclas and Gryffindor. Except, well, Gryffindor’s object is safe in Hogwarts. Now there’s this tingling bit for me. I remember Trewlaney said in the prophecy that either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. What if good old voldie accidently put his Horcrux in Harry? Oops.. hehe

Ah well, another 2 years wait then….

Someone definitely had a lovely surprise for the birthday… hehehe…