The head of finance of national carmaker, Tan Seng Lee, today said he had resigned, making it the second high-profile staff change at the company in a fortnight.

"I have resigned and am no longer with Proton," Tan said in a telephone interview, adding that he had finished up with the company last week.

Tan's resignation follows on the heels of Proton's decision in late July not to renew the contract of its chief executive officer Mahaleel Ariff after he criticised the government's policy on the auto sector.

But Tan said his resignation was unrelated to Mahaleel's departure and that he was leaving for "better opportunities", although he declined to say where he was going.

Proton announced on July 26 that after nine years in the job, Mahaleel's contract would not be renewed and he would be stood down.

Falling sales

A row was sparked when Mahaleel, who has been battling falling sales of Proton models in the face of a flood of foreign imports, said the automaker had been "poorly treated" by the government.

He said that its policy of removing protective tariffs under a regional free-trade pact was damaging the performance of the carmaker which was launched in the 1980s as part of a national industrialisation drive.

His complaints also touched on a controversial permit scheme for car imports, in operation for decades, which critics said was being used to dump vehicles in the domestic market at below their true value.

Proton used to sell six out of every 10 new cars in Malaysia but growing foreign competition is eating into its market share which fell to 44 percent last year from 48 percent in 2003.