Proton: The Bigger The Fool, The Harder The Fall

Preamble:- Kristofferson is the greatest all-rounder since Astaire. He embraced an era of originality that gave birth to a different genre of artist’ altogether. The Bigger The Fool, The Harder The Fall is a poem that partakes of both speech and tune. It partakes of both emotion and beauty. It is a downhill ride to unconditional love spurned yet again. It captures the betrayal of Proton to the nation. 

Originality is a powerful nationalist. France has an icon in Peugeot, Italy in Ferrari and Germany in Benz. Malaysia has an icon in the understated Tara KLamp. The nation leads in safe circumcision. Although in the wake of the original design, competition in form of the Ali Klamp, Ismail Klamp and Smart Klamp clever enough to circumvent intellectual property issues, were born. Copycats are inconsequential in the design narrative because they are simply plagiarized articles that serve to embarrass the country of origin.

Proton is analogous to a writer who began a career with plagiarized articles. It spawned a badge-engineering coterie that thrived in a feeding frenzy of the gullible encased in a cocoon. Consequently, they lacked the instinct to create original designs. Their end products were simply ‘Legalized Imitations’ that contributed nothing to the development of their respective brands. Their usurpations were defilements of intellectual property and void of heritage.

When shares slid, shareholders fired the sports organizer and hired a track-racer to lead the company. The racer with all strokes of the internal combustion engine in his bones was blunt. He said worse than being a plagiarist is to create a perception that you are one. He said the main issue is that the company demands brand loyalty but is incapable of reciprocating it because it does not have a design to begin with. He led by producing original designs, leaving the coterie irrelevant in the narrative as they continued their frenzy. He embraced an era of originality that gave birth to a new Proton altogether.

Then shareholders made a silly decision. They fired the racer for being on the wrong side of the political fence and hired a bureaucrat from the ranks of the badge-engineering coterie no less. The bureaucrat, not inclined to walk the workshop floor, could not sustain the doctrine the racer left behind and proudly announced a new imitation from the cocoon he came from. Like a true plagiarist he offered some bovine to soften the charge about the origin of his article and unwittingly proffered a delectable conversation about the mental state of the company by parlaying a skewed version of the doctrine of evolution.

The thing is, visionary corporate models are time-limited. Once the genius is gone, the company becomes a rumor of its former revolutionary self. The racer attempted to turn the company into a car designer it was not, but instead it proved to be the plagiarist it originally was. The critique in this context is vocal because if originality is a nationalist, plagiarism is a traitor.

Worse than being a plagiarist is to create a perception that you are one.

Words, Videography – Tommy Peters 

Afterword: 1. The above narrative was written in response to the recent launch of the Proton Inspira (a badge-engineered vehicle). 2. Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners – Nov 1, 2010)