The "
Saga" is a type of
bean.
I was sitting at an open-air Chinese restaurant in Ampang, Malaysia, when the SECOND Malaysian car, the Proton Wira, was introduced with great fanfare in 1995.
(Wira, by the way, was the nickname for Malaysia's 1998 Commonwealth Games mascot, an orang-utan.)
There were hordes of people gathered around the local car-dealership. Even though there was only one car to display at that branch, there was a band, banners, fireworks. It was like d-day and the 4th of July all rolled into one.
It's probably difficult for non-Malaysians to understand what an achievement these cars represent to the Malaysian people, or to comprehend why they are named after beans and simians.