A senior Cabinet minister today defended Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai's action to approve the sale of ‘Patriot’ car plates for charity without open tender.

"This is nothing new; there was precedent. It was first done in (former prime minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad's time.

"So, I don't understand why it became an issue (now)," said Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz when attending an event at the Craft Complex in Kuala Lumpur.

During Mahathir's time, the government came up with ‘Sukom’ car plates, in conjunction with the Commonwealth Games, he said.

Further, he argued, the ‘Patriot’ car plate scheme, which was given to the Yayasan Patriot Negara (YPN), was meant for a "good cause".

"I am sure the minister has gone through the background of the foundation before awarding the scheme (without open tender)," Nazri ( photo ) said.

The Umno supreme council leader, however, refused to comment more on the matter and urged the press to ask Liow to respond.

Nazri not interested to bid

The car plate bidding was meant to make money, he said, without referring to either Road Transport Department or YPN ( photo ).

Nazri, however, said he wasn't interested in bidding for a ‘Patriot’ car plate number, saying, "No, (I have) enough."

In 2012, both Nazri and Liow raised eyebrows when it was revealed that their bids for the number plate ‘WWW97' and ‘WWW15' was for RM10,010 and RM24,200, respectively.

Liow gave up the number when he was criticised for not submitting the winning bid and instead, exercising his option as a cabinet minister to get one preferred number without charge.

Nazri, then, had said: “I have a lot of money; how to spend the money? As a minister, RM10,000 is not much."

Malaysiakini in a special report on Tuesday had highlighted that the YPN committee comprised politically-linked individuals, with at least three of them having the same paternal name.

The majority of the committee members were also executives in the Muslim Consumer Association of Malaysia (PPIM), which controversially called for a boycott of Chinese businesses that were supportive of the opposition.

YPN said it expected to earn between RM10 million and RM15 million through the auction, and the proceeds would be used to promote "patriotism".