KUALA LUMPUR: Gundala actor Bront Palarae is not known to comment on political issues, but he has just heralded the New Year with one.
Bront, 41, is one of many Netizens who have expressed their disapproval of Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng's recent announcement that ministers and senior government officials would receive new Toyota Vellfires and Honda Accords as their official vehicles.
He and fellow Netizens felt that it would have been better for the officials to use national cars as Protons and Peroduas, in line with the long-running Buy Malaysian campaign.
Bront tweeted: "If the government does not use national cars as official cars, the people will have a lack of confidence in national cars.
"And this will also have a negative impact on foreigners who plan to purchase Malaysian cars.
"If the government officials do not want to use the national car, how can we convince foreigners to do the same?"
Bront added that if the government wanted to strengthen trade ties with Japan, it ought to sell Malaysian cars to Japanese officials in exchange for Japanese cars for Malaysian officials.
He tweeted: "If this is to strengthen ties with Japan, then we should have a few hundred Perodua cars for Japanese officials too.
"Clearly not #Harapan Bagi Rakyat."
Lim recently announced that ministers and senior government officials would be receiving 32 new Toyota Vellfires and 3,000 Honda Accords as their official vehicles.
He also said that the contract for the change of official vehicles was currently awaiting Cabinet approval.
This followed the end of a 25-year government concession with Spanco Sdn Bhd (Spanco) in 2019.
Currently, ministers and senior government officials use Proton Perdana and Toyota Camry vehicles respectively.