MALACCA: Local MCA leaders are the successful bidders for the “MCA” series of number plate registrations.

State MCA chairman Datuk Gan Tian Loo, who bought MCA 5 with RM28,600, said the number was familiar to him as his state exco official car also bore the same number.

“As a Malaccan and MCA member, getting a number plate bearing the letters ‘MCA’ is a chance of a lifetime.

“I am happy that I successfully made a bid for one and I shall present this number plate as a gift to my father Datuk Wira Gan Boon Leong, who is an MCA veteran,” he said here yesterday.

Hot numbers: Members of the public and several local journalists checking the results on the successful bids on plates bearing the letters MCA at the state Road Transport Department (JPJ) office at Bukit Katil Wednesday.

State MCA secretary Datuk Koh Nai Kwong bought the number plate MCA 7 with RM64,776.80 while MCA 1949 was purchased by the party’s headquarters for RM2,200, the number being the year it was founded.

Both MCA 1 and MCA 2 were bought by the same company, Asset Nusa Sdn Bhd, which put in bids of RM300,100 – the highest paid in the state and country so far – and RM101,000 respectively.

Oh Swee Yen successfully bid for MCA 8 with RM88,168, while Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam put in a bid for MCA 1010 for RM550.

The successful bids were made public by the Road Transport Department (JPJ) at its office in Bukit Katil yesterday.

A spokesman for its vehicle registration and licensing division said it received 958 applications in three weeks since the numbers were put up for bidding on Nov 24.

There were 468 successful bids worth some RM1.5mil, he added.

He said the department would notify successful bidders over the next two weeks, after which they would be given a month to settle the balance of payment.

“Failure to do so will result in the forfeiture of their deposits and the number plates they bidded for,” he said, adding that applications for other available MCA number plates would start next week.

Prior to this, the number plate ‘MBU 1’ was bought for RM68,201 last year and ‘TAY 1’, issued by the Terengganu JPJ, was bought for RM220,000.

-The Star-