Ku Nan: Maybe Nazri did not fully listen to MCA

Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz asking MCA to leave BN, could be because he did not fully listen to what was said by MCA central committee member Ti Lian Ker.

This was what Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had to say when asked to respond to Nazri's comment.

"Maybe Nazri also did not listen to what was said," he offered in a press conference at a Hari Raya Aidiladha event in Putrajaya today.

Following a spat with Ti, Nazri had asked MCA to quit BN, as he said that MCA liked to complain, and had also claimed that Umno made it lose in the general election.

"If Umno is really acting to their detriment, then they (MCA) should quit," Nazri, who is an Umno supreme council member, had said.

The war of words between Nazri and Ti triggered after the latter urged Umno to abandon its "Jaguh Kampung" (village hero) politics.

Ti had said that Umno's strategy of fear-mongering along racial and religious lines to gain Malay support in the countryside, came at the expense of BN component parties and urban support.

When asked about Ti's comment, Tengku Adnan said that it was probably Ti's own personal views.

He then brought up Gerakan Penang chief Teng Chang Yeow, who had said yesterday that BN lost Penang because of Umno, in response to Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's remark that component parties in the state seemed dependent on Umno's machinery.

"Yesterday the deputy prime minister already clarified (his remarks) but Teng didn't listen to what was said. So that was the problem (when you don't listen)," Tengku Adnan said.

He implored BN component parties to bring their disagreements or views to the supreme council meetings.

"I have no issue. MCA is our component party. Of course, people are trying to woo them to get them to leave BN, same like MIC.

"They want to break us but believe me, there won't be any break in BN, because whatever decision we make, irrespective of whether you're a small party or a big party, it's all in consensus.

"Everybody must agree, that's what consensus is all about," he said.

He claimed that BN was the only multiracial party in the country, which was why there were those who were jealous and would like nothing more than to see the dissolution of BN.

"But believe me, we are working very hard. We're trying to explain to the public our programme, what we're doing for them and what is there in the future (for them).

"They have hope with BN. They have no hope with other parties," he said. -Mkini