MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong asked Lim for three guarantees.

One, he said, Lim had to guarantee that no protectionist policy, that could cause car prices to increase, would be imposed.

Two, he said, Lim should guarantee that the third national car project would not be bailed out by the government via direct loans, grants or guarantees should it run into financial problems.

Three, he said, no special treatment should be given to the privately owned third national car company nor should there be any cross-subsidy to their owners indirectly.

“Our finance minister’s guarantee that the third national car will not involve government investment and only private funds will be involved is not enough.

“Even though Proton was also 100% privately owned in 2016, the government had no choice but to bail out Proton with a RM1.5 billion soft loan so that Proton could repay its debts to the vendors and save an estimated 30,000 jobs in Proton and its supply chain,” he said on Facebook.

Wee appeared to criticise the previous Barisan Nasional government when he noted that during the 30 years that Proton was in existence, “ordinary Malaysians had to bear as much as RM360 billion in the form of higher car prices and its correspondingly higher loans, higher car insurance premiums and higher spare parts cost”.

The Ayer Hitam MP said if Lim would give these guarantees “in writing”, then the third national car project should enjoy the full support of all Malaysians, including himself.