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'Halt perverted Patriot number plate sale'
Published:  Jun 30, 2015 7:14 PM
Updated: 11:19 AM

Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong today urged Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai to direct the Road Transport Department to immediately stop the sale of the 'Patriot'  series vanity car plate.

This follows the revelation that the RTD will only receive RM1 million from the sales of the license plates by NGO Yayasan Patriot Negara (YPN).

“This constitutes only a tiny fraction of YPN's goal of sourcing more than RM10 million in gross profit from the scheme,” he said in a statement.

Liew ( photo ) quoted a  news report in which YPN vice-president Nadzim Johan had told the media that the foundation would give RM1 million to the RTD from the sale of the car registration plates.

Nadzim's statement came after controversy erupted following the announcement by YPN that it was selling the fancy numbers plates form 'PATRIOT 1' to 'PATRIOT 9999' for between RM1 million and RM500.

The uproar came amidst questions of transparency as to how  such NGOs were selected and whether the monies accrued to the sale were distributed .

“RTD will never lose and instead they will be making money," Nadzim had said, adding the scheme was granted to them by the RTD without an open tender during  Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's tenure as the acting transport minister once..

Public money, too

Liew said in the past the government had approved permits for imported goods, permits for foreign workers, permits for security guards and now 'this perverted action has come a step further with the 'patriotic' scheme'.

“Soon supposedly sacred words like 'patriot', '1Malaysia' and 'Unity' will all be seen as butt of jokes in Malaysia. It is making a huge mockery of patriotism.

“The RTD is a public institution in which its revenue is also public money. As such, even its foregone revenue, such as the amount to be pocketed by YPN via the 'Patriot' plate sales, is deemed public money too,” the DAP MP said.

The federal lawmaker, who is a spokesperson for his party for transport and public works, urged Liow, to stop the blatant abuse of public authorities for private gain.

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