Since Proton made its debut in Malaysia about 3 decades ago, it’s a known fact that Proton vehicles have always been plagued by lackluster quality poor quality and unimpressive design.

It’s not unusual (very common, to be precise) to hear public complaint about the overall poor quality vehicles by Proton over the years and indirectly affecting the financial result of the company, when it’s sales dwindled tremendously and continously losing market share and subsequently, the profit margin eroded substantially too.

Proton was a hot topic then, when the Government was facing public pressure to sell the Proton. On top of that, there was a time when the selling of Proton was looming and risked being taken over by foreign automakers like Volkswagen (VW), General Motors (GM) and etc.

In the end, the acquisition plans collapsed when the Government decided it’s best to keep the Proton’s ownership or risk losing control over the design and production of our national car maker, which is long perceived as a brainchild of our former PM Tun Mahathir Mohamad, as part of an ambitious national industrialization plan.

That’s how important is our pride and dignity are, for it’s a national interest which must be well preserved, nevertheless Proton marched on and recently, the sales surged with the latest introduction of Proton Persona, which is developed according to Proton’s i-CARE commitment, which aims to improve all aspects of their cars within the i-CARE commitment, ranging from design, styling and production to sales and after-sales.

It was reporeted that bookings exceeding 2,200 units have been received for the Proton Persona, even before it was officially unveiled by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, showing signs of returning public’s belief and confidence in Proton.

Fast forward a year later, it’s heartening to note Proton on Friday launched a "zero-defect" campaign aimed at erasing a reputation for poor quality that has left it struggling to compete against foreign competitors.

As part of the "zero-defect" programme, banners have been posted in the assembly plant reading: "Erase the culture of ‘I don’t care about quality’" and "Don’t just talk — ensure quality".

I’d say this is a good start and it’s our Malaysians utmost hope to see the national carmaker overcomes the hurdles and put some shines back on the Proton, especially in view of the recent announcement by Minister of International Trade and Industry Muhyiddin Yassin that the AP policy will be retained for the next ten to eleven years, which means public still need to fork out additional money to buy foreign vehicles for the next decade, hence by hook or by crook, if budget is under constraint, especially for those freshies who have just start to work, national car is still the primary choice.

Having said all that, there is a catch when Proton managing director Syed Zainal Abidin said 60 percent of defects in Proton cars were due to poor quality components from vendors, but admitted the rest of the blame fell on the firm’s workforce.

60 percent of defects component from vendor? What a staggering figure and by all means, it’s totally unacceptable!

If the management is serious in bringing the Proton back to a profitable entity, they should run it like a proper conglomerate and not as a charity organization, which means incompetent vendors which do not adhere to the standard set must be removed and replaced.

In another word, if Proton is to talk about "zero-defect", zero tolerance towards vendors who can’t deliver must come into the picture as a complimentary to the campaign, otherwise the entire exercise is going to be a futile effort and public fund will continue to be wasted.

While I’m optimistic Proton will continue to strive for a better performance, it’d be great if they’re going to do us a huge favor by cut-short the time spent in it’s quest for glory, isn’t it?

Pray do tell.

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