The henchmen - Nazri Aziz and Ibrahim Ali

Malaysian politics is colored by many things, be it scandals, ridiculous rhetoric or mind-bending policies. However, taking the cake must surely be two unique men or as their critics call them - publicity-crazy, odd-balls who can always be counted on to shoot their mouths off without any thought at all.

Despite a glaring difference in phsyique and looks, Nazri Aziz and Ibrahim Ali can certainly pass for brother-in-arms. One is taller and keeps himself trim. The other is short and rotund. But at the mouth area, the dimensions are strikingly similar.

At times, they even smash each other down, but most of the time they like to hammer away at the opposition.

As for those in their own BN coalition, they like to tease, blow hot, blow cold and then hack to death puny colleagues like MCA and Gerakan.

Learning some manners would be a good idea

Mostly recently, Nazri called Ibrahim a “clown”. But he also took care to play down Ibrahim’s fiery call for a holy war against the Christians in the country, whom the Perkasa chief had insisted were trying to install a Christian Prime Minister.

Nazri's rationale - Ibrahim’s rhetoric had not sparked any immediate reaction and hence was 'harmless'.

But to many other Malaysians, Ibrahim's public offer to spill blood until he himself and other Perakasa members die "sprawling in blood" was anything but harmless. In fact, there is likely to be claps of joy all round if the portly Ibrahim was rounded up to spend a night or two in jail for the mental intimidation against his fellow Malaysians.

In any case, it was fortunate there was no immediate reaction from the Christian community which actually is something Nazri Aziz should note but is oblivious to. It is called good diplomacy and it comes with good manners.

In Malaysia, there is never much immediate reaction - especially the violent and crude sort - from any of the other religious groups except for the ones instigated by UMNO and its minions. The only people who show violent reaction are Ibrahim Ali and members of his group.

It is also strange for Nazri Aziz to point out his own “change” of attitude in line with society, alluding to the fact that the Malaysian public has learnt not to pay attention to people like Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa.

Nazri cited the fact that with alternative media available, people have taken to the Internet to voice their grouses, which he also took the opportunity to reiterate was why the government could not act against Utusan Malaysia.

But for those who have followed Nazri's past statements, the only "change" was how quickly he amended his well-known hardliner stance when the culprits involved were not from the Pakatan Rakyat parties, but from the UMNO’s own stable of propaganda and rabble-rousing units.

Nonetheless, this is perhaps the true nature of Nazri Aziz. He has learnt to blow with the wind. He changes with the situation to suit the current atmosphere. If Ibrahim Ali is the frog, Nazri Aziz is the chameleon.

Najib's hatchetman

Nazri Aziz’s cabinet portfolio is Law and Parliamentary Affairs, so one would expect that Nazri limits his scope to the confines of the Parliament. Yet this is far from the case.

In June 2005, his favourite catch phrase was “bloody racist” which he uttered 28 times in Parliament. Either he was so worked up or he wanted his colleagues to know how tough he was. The comment came while debating the Malaysian Medical Council's decision not to recognize the medical degress offered by Crimea State Medical University, which had many Malaysian Indian students at its campus.

In December 2009, Nazri even hurled the phrase “bloody racist” at former premier Mahathir Mohamad, when the latter defended the establishment of the racially-biased BTN or National Civics Bureau.

On Tuesday, he called Ibrahim Ali a “clown” and not “bloody racist”. Was this to enforce the point that he had changed?

In 2006, he defended then premier Abdullah Badawi who was under constant and virulent attack from Mahathir. A visibly upset Mahathir retaliated by calling Nazri “Abdullah’s hatchetman”.

But it looks like Nazri should now be re-labelled “Najib’s hatchetman”.

What happened to "bloody racist" and "I am Malaysian first and Malay second"

In September 2010, he defended Prime Minister Najib’s 1Malaysia policy, saying that he was a Malaysian first and Malay second; in direct contradiction to the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s statement that he was a Malay first and Malaysian second.

Even the Barisan Nasional component parties are not spared Nazri’s comments. Last week, he mocked MCA Youth chief Wee Ka Siong, who is also the Deputy Education Minister, over alleged abuse of power in the distribution of government scholarships.

Nazri took the side of the Public Service Department,which oversees the grants, claiming that the officers were "excellent" and that there was no negligence as Wee had claimed.

Nazri statements were contrary to the PSD director-general Abu Bakar Haji Abdullah's own admission that there had been “bureaucratic mistakes” in the distribution of the scholarships which had resulted in many non-Malay top-scorers receiving nothing.

What happened to "bloody racist" and "I am Malaysian first and Malay second"?

But then this is Nazri, the chameleon who seems to be able to get away with saying some of the daftest things. He may think of himself as a classic - a federal cabinet minister who has the audacity to wade into any issue he deems interesting.

And often times changing his stance to suit the situation, tripping and embarrassing himself before the public.

With frogs and chameleons running around, who is running the Zoo? - Malaysia Chronicle