boon's log 3507.01: The Old, The New and The Ugly

It's either a sheer coincindence or perhaps someone in Proton has pissed someone in Petronas pretty bad.

If you've seen the latest Petronas' series of Merdeka (Independence Day) TV ads, you'd probably know what I talking about. In one of the many versions of the ads, it depicts one villager deciding to move out of the kampung (i.e. village) to the city to find a better job. And in the process, he needs to inform the penghulu (i.e. head of the village) about his departure.

And since he (the villager) owes the village chief some money, the chief requests him to built him a boat and by doing so, he will consider all the debts cleared. The villager can take all the raw material, etc. that he needs from the chief's garage... free of charge!

So, this villager, goes home to start on the boat. In the process, he saw an old boat lying by the tree and that kind of lit of some lightbulb in his head...

(P/S: I've put up a side-by-side story which sounds very similar to the Petronas Story)


The Old...

So he stopped working designing a new boat from scratch and started on refurbishing the old left over that was under the tree. The video then showed how he spent time doing the "repair work" - patching leaks, repainting, etc. Off and on, the chief came by to check on the progress, while the villager covered the boat when the chief came along... "secret! new design! wait until we roll it out, then you will know how it looks like!"

And finally it was done! He rolled the boat into the river... Tada! The "New" boat is out!


The New...

Just then, the chief came by and asked about the boat and also deliver some good news! He said that he (the chief) does not need the boat anymore and that the villager can keep it for himself, as a gift. And as an added bonus, he gave him a motor to go along with the boat! Of course the villager was estatic! But upon returning to the boat with the motor, he was shocked with what he saw... the boat the he build and thought he could get away with by building from an old boat, was half in the waters...


The Ugly... (by the way, incase you cannot see it - there are TWO gas gauges)

Just then, the following words rolled up...

"Can what we build today, take us into tomorrow?"

You can view the YouTube video here.

I cannot help but to see the strong similarity in the 2 - Proton and Petronas. The newly launched Proton Persona is basically a Proton Gen.2 with an added few-inches of trunk space. They may do some face-lift here and there, but face it, the customers are not dumbnuts. People are nick-naming the new car Proton Gen2.5 - where the 0.5 stands for the few inches of added trunk room. Seriously, Can what they build today, bring them into tomorrow?

Proton's been reporting quarter after quarter of losses, and paying off dealers here and there. Something is wrong somewhere (or everywhere). Someone within the corporation needs to rethink how they do business (design, quality, reliability, etc.).

I'm sure that you've seen the Champion of all Protons! Presenting... the Proton Juara (Juara is Champion in Malay)...


The Proton Champion (2001-2003)

boon out...