Once I heard from a Malaysian friend who explained to me about the demise state of Proton. He heard from a Malay ex-Proton executive.
In the past, Proton had no racial quota on her employees. However, with the introducation of discriminative racial quote, which 80% of the employees must be Malay, Proton started to go downhill. This new quota is in accordance of the Bumpi policy which gives Malays unfair rights over other ethnic citiziens.
Lot of talented non-Malay employees left the company and only to be replaced by sub-standard Malay employees. The new employees got their jobs mainly because they are Malay. Moreover, the top management became Malay-dominated.

Sub-standard employees

sub-standard products

coupled with the opening out of Malaysian market to foreign competitors

poor sales performance
But guess the Proton management has done something to halt the downfall.