By TK Chua

It would appear that a national car project is Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s never-ending obsession. With Proton gone, he is now contemplating beginning a second national car project.

Many have reacted adversely to his latest ambition, not least our former prime minister Najib Razak and others from Umno/BN.

Mahathir has done great things, especially over the last two years. This culminated in his appointment as the nation’s seventh prime minister. With all the capable critics now in government, it would appear that he can do no wrong.

Be that as it may, I have my reservations on his second attempt at embarking on a national car project. This ambition, if implemented, would be out of sync with our competitive advantage and current development.

There are so many industries out there – why car manufacturing? Why do we think automobiles will be the future winner?

Picking the winner as a development strategy has long been defunct. The government is the least qualified to know which industry will turn out to be the new “champion” of the future.

By right, the government should just provide the facilities and infrastructure and leave the actual selection of industries to private corporations and entrepreneurs. They would know better than the government.

In soft infrastructure, the government should focus on business environment, trained manpower, licensing requirements, regulation and deregulation, and clear policies and legal frameworks. In hard infrastructure, the government should pay more attention to port facilities, highways, transportation, telecommunication, energy, water and power supply.

As a nation, if we can get all this right, I think investments (both foreign and domestic) and enterprises will thrive on their own.

We do not have to put our money in a national car project again. All we need to do is to make the investors see the potential of making Malaysia a hub for auto design and manufacturing.

TK Chua is an FMT reader.

The views of the writer do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.