Auto-xenophobia

The Czech pop song may claim "Modrá je dobrá" (Blue is Good), but I  doubt this is the spirit of the Czech law which makes foreigners living in the Czech Republic have different coloured licence plates on their cars. Register your car in the Czech Republic and you'll find this absurdity is true: citizens get white plates, foreigners blue ones.

Can anyone explain why this is so? Is there any reason at all for this, or does it exist just to make harassment of foreigners a bit easier?

Perhaps it exists so the police can tell the local Vietnamese apart. Well, I know our uniformed heroes do need a little help once in a  while, but I don't think they need that much help.

Perhaps some xenophobe in the police force or the Interior Ministry believes this colour-coding helps the police catch more criminals. I  doubt they have any proof of this, of course, but it is remotely possible that someone could be stupid and ignorant enough to believe this.

Or perhaps some official somewhere believes this is just standard practice in a democracy. But is there any other country anywhere in the world which does this? I know this official auto-xenophobia doesn't exist in Germany, the USA, Britain or Canada. Why the Czech Republic finds it necessary is beyond me.

We should face the facts: this is a throw-back to the Communist era when every foreigner was suspect. It is completely indefensible today. What is the Republic going to do when it enters the EU? Will this shameful, xenophobic throw-back hold up to a legal chalenge at the European level? I doubt it. Why not change it now before it becomes a scandalous embarrassment?