It's not just the US that has trouble putting its car industry out of its misery. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's blogging ex-prime minister, is once again talking up the prospects of Proton, the country's floundering national carmaker.
Mahathir has personal pride at stake in this: he set up the firm in 1983 (Proton stands for Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional or 'National Automobile Enterprise', which gives you a clue as to how much of a role business sense played in the decision next to none). But as you can tell from the comments on his blog, most of Malaysia thinks he's barking up the wrong tree.
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