Malaysia, a beautiful country in South East Asia that in the 70s and 80s once enjoyed phenomenal economic growth is a god-given country abundant in natural resources, strategically positioned for shipping routes with no natural disasters.
However catching international headlines in the past 15 years are cases after cases of racist practice by the government, scandals of alleged corruptions running rampant in the country and the jailing of once ex-Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in one political scandal involving many high rank government officials.
As a country with relatively low GDP, Malaysia however, is one of Asia's largest automotive market, and ranks highest amongst car per household ratios due to the extensive large networks of highway infrastructures and an incomprehensible deliberate negligence on public transports had led the country to rely heavily on personal transports and massive traffic jams.
With a national car policy to ensure Proton's success in it's local market, Governments begin taxing extremely heavy on imported cars, making car buying amongst the most expensive in the world.
In another move that we believe would enrage Malaysian public, the Terengganu State Government, controlled by the Ruling Coalition Barisan Nasional had ordered a fleet of Mercedes Benz E Class 200K to replace the local made Proton Perdana V6.
Terengganu, is an underdeveloped state relying mainly on agriculture and tourism, off shore fishing and petroleum mining (the latter's profit goes straight to the Ruling Coalition controlled Federal Government).
Terengganu State Secretary Datuk Mokhtar Nong citing reasons of 'cheaper maintenance cost' which we believe 6 billion person in the world including perhaps a few smarter Chimpanzees and Orang Utans would be in awe shock of disbelieve.
With the high tax imposed, a Mercedes Benz E Class 200K in Malaysia would cost around $85,000 USD.
Even if we put aside the patriotic part of the story for not using a Malaysian made car for Malaysian Government officials, purchasing E Class for reasons of lower maintenance costs is mid bogglingly annoying as highly reliable Japanese options of Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Mazda 6 are all sold in this country with around the price of $40,000 USD, and in no way would a Perdana V6, regardless of how high the maintenance costs are, to be higher than a Mercedes E Class in the long term.
In comparison, Penang, another island state located on the West Coast of Peninsula Malaysia run by the opposition party, Government officials have to drive their own vehicles to work.
