THING'S are gloomy at Proton. The performance of the Malaysian car company continues to decline. Last year, Proton's sales plummeted nearly one-third from 166,118 to 115,538 units. Its market share shrank to 37 percent from 60 percent in 2002. Its revenues even nosedived by more than a half, to RM962.3 million or Rp2.5 trillion. It was the lowest in the past seven years.

It all happened after Malaysia slashed motor vehicle import duties from 60 to