Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon has called on colleague Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz to correct or apologise for his remarks belittling Umno’s component partners in Barisan Nasional (BN).
The Gerakan president also urged the BN supreme council to take disciplinary action against Umno leader.
“He must say if he has been misquoted. If he is misquoted then he should ask whoever is responsible to apologise, but if he is not misquoted then it is up to him (to make a public apology). He is a grown man, he should know what to do,” he told reporters in parliament here.
Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s comments, which were published yesterday in the Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau, had painted MCA as a aggrieved woman” or a “wife who complains all day long that she was being abused, raped and not given enough food, but yet does not want to divorce her husband.”
Koh said Nazri’s statement was against the team spirit in BN and has affected the ruling coalition’s preparation in the Sarawak polls as well as an anticipated general election.
“This kind of statement is totally irresponsible and affects the morale of the grassroots. And in my opinion it is extremely damaging so we want to condemn such heroic acts on his own and it is damaging to the relationship in BN,” he said.
“I call him a loose cannon. How can he shoot at our own line-up when we are advancing now, as we are getting ready and gaining ground under Datuk Seri Najib (Razak)?” he added.
Koh added that such statements should not have been made in public as they would cement public perception that Umno leaders were arrogant.
Nazri’s remarks had immediately earned him the wrath of top MCA leaders and reignited a recent feud between the party and Umno.
Last year, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek had locked horns several times with top Umno leaders as he attempted to push for Chinese community rights and called for the abolishment of the 30 per cent Bumiputera equity target.
Even as the racially-charged tiff between the two BN giants eventually fizzled out, Dr Chua used last year’s BN convention in December as his platform to deliver a hard-hitting reminder to Umno that the “big brother, small brother” system in the ruling pact should no longer exist.
