Let me tell a story on why I shed no tears over Proton.

In late 1994, my late mother promptly booked the newly launched Proton Satria 1.3 Manual at the Ipoh Proton sales centre. She paid the booking fee and she confirmed that she will pay the balance of the purchase price by cash.

Proton then insisted that all new car purchasers must take all the optional accessories. So it was compulsory to purchase of optional accessories.

The Proton sales people did not even want to entertain her question on why the advertisement said the accessories were optional while the sales people insisted otherwise.

A few weeks later, she was informed by the salesperson that she needed to take a loan to purchase the car. Cash purchases were not allowed despite her insistence that she had the cash to pay for the car.

The salesman insisted that she must take out a hire-purchase loan of at least RM10,000. One way out was to draw down the loan and then pay it back within a week.

She was then informed that the arrival of her new car would be significantly faster should she sign for a hire-purchase agreement.

Knowing my late mother, she did not bow to the whims of these sales people. Instead, she brought along her lawyer friend to Proton to demand that she be allowed pay for the car in cash. Proton backed down.

At the same time, I had to miss college lectures to meet a senior official at the Proton KL head office to complain on this improper treatment which my late mother received. The salesman then got a show-cause letter.

The new Proton Satria car finally arrived 10 months later, some time in late 1995. By the,n the car price was already adjusted upwards thus she had to pay more for the car.

But that was not the end of her problems. The car came without four accessories. I had miss lectures again to personally go to the Proton KL sales head office and finally got a refund for two out of the four accessories.

Proton said they would deliver the remaining two accessories ‘in due time’. The missing accessories in question were the body strips and cigarette lighter.

Phone calls to the Proton Ipoh sales centre was met with non-committal answers since the car was already delivered and also because my mother had already got a refund for two out of the four accessories.

Now my mother is long gone but I am still driving the car - minus the body strips and the cigarette light, the two accessories my mother paid for but never got.

So I watch the drastic fall of Proton’s share price to below RM2 without shedding any tears although I am a true Malaysian.

I sincerely believe that one must apologise for and rectify past mistakes before moving forward.