Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamed denied on Saturday that he had pressured the government over the affairs of state-linked carmaker Proton, and defended its CEO against a bid by the board to remove him. Mahathir was speaking to reporters in the administrative capital, Putrajaya, following a report in Friday's Asian Wall Street Journal that the chairman of Proton Holdings Bhd had resigned over his interference in its affairs.
"I have never applied any pressure on the government," Mahathir, the driving force behind the Proton project and now an adviser to the company, told a news conference.
He said that four or five months ago a group of four Proton board members, including the chairman, had come to his home to discuss friction in the company between the chief executive, Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff, and some board members. He said he had wanted to hear both sides of the story.
"Apart from the impression given that they did not want the present CEO, there was no real complaint that Proton was not well run," Mahathir said.
"As far as I can make out, the CEO has not failed the company. Why do we want to remove a CEO who seems to have done very well? I don't know what wrong he has done. I did not give the government any headache."
Mahathir, appointed adviser to the company last year after 22 years as prime minister, added, "We don't sack because they are not nice. We sack people because they have failed."
Proton, 43 percent owned by state investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd, became Malaysia's dominant auto maker as part of a Mahathir government industrialisation drive that included slapping heavy tariffs on foreign cars.
Asked about a report in the New Straits Times newspaper that Azlan Hashim, a director of Khazanah, had been tipped to take over as Proton's new chairman, Mahathir said he did not know if this was true. Nor did he know whether the Proton chairman, Abu Hassan Kendut, had resigned.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters after a political party gathering on Saturday that Azlan's appointment would be discussed at the next meeting of Khazanah.
"I did meet the new head of Khazanah," Mahathir added. "I don't see any problem. He did not mention anything about removing Tengku Mahaleel."
The report could not be confirmed because officials of Proton and Khazanah declined to comment.
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