Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia:
The controversy surrounding the purchase of a fleet of Mercedes Benz cars by the State Government of Trengganu took other turns last night.
The state of Trengganu under it’s Chief Minister, Ahmad Said is advised to allocate the Merc fleet for the state’s VIP guests only. Reselling the cars would mean a loss to the state. The advice came from both the Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi and his Deputy, Najib Razak.
What made the purchase of the German’s luxury car by the Trengganu’s Government controversial is the fact that they are going to replace the fleet of Proton Perdana V6. Proton Perdana V6 is a Malaysian made car and there is a government circular which clearly stated that all Ministers and Assistant Ministers must use the Malaysian made Perdana V6.
The purchase of the Merc fleet by the Trengganu State Government is thus seen as an unpatriotic act. Moreover, that decision is against Federal Regulation. By stating that the purchase of a foreign marque is more economical than maintaining the fleet of Proton Perdana V6, the Chief Minister was clearly acting against the wish of the federal government. Secondly, to indulge in luxury when the whole population is reeling from the onslaught of inflation is clearly a very bad taste.
This is the reason for all those noises from the media.
The high maintenance cost of Proton Perdana V6 as alleged by the Trengganu State Givernment which was corroborated by other state government was untrue, said Proton’s Managing Director and CEO Syed Zainal.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency was notified and the ball is still rolling. As time goes by, it seemed that many Proton Dealers have been in cahoots with officials who are assignated to operate and maintain the Proton Perdana V6. This is probably the cause of the sky-rocketting maintenance bills.
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