I was talking about rakyat's money 'kena sapu' – Rafidah blasts 'myopic' Nazri

Rafidah Aziz has lambasted Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, who is known for not mincing his words, as a “myopic” politician.

To emphasise her point, the former minister, in her response to Malaysiakini, also included a screenshot of the meaning of the word “myopic” and insisted that it be published.

“The word myopic means short-sighted (example given in the definition googled..."the government still has a myopic attitude to public spending.."). Lacking foresight or intellectual insight... and its synonyms are unimaginative, uncreative, unadventurous, narrow-minded, lacking foresight, small-minded, short-term, narrow, insular, parochial and provincial,” read her message.

Rafidah also provided a link to a The Malaysian Insight (TMI) article dated March 8 with the headline, “NFC still owes gov't RM248 million, says Finance Ministry.”

“This was what I was talking about. Rakyat's money 'kena sapu' (embezzled). Nazri's 'myopic politics'.

“Nothing to do with 'personal politics'. I have retired for 10 years. But the rakyat's money has still not been paid up, with still around RM200 million to be paid.

“Hutang is still hutang (A debt is still a debt), especially people's money.

“Nazri please focus on issues that are of concern to the rakyat and not try to divert attention to this 'old aunty'. Stop your gutter politics.

“Can print it as my response together with the myopic explanation,” she added.

She was responding to Nazri's remark that the former minister's previous comments confirmed his belief that she is "envious and jealous" of losing her Wanita Umno chief post to Sharizat Abdul Jalil.

Last week, Rafidah, who was known as the “iron lady”, chided Nazri (photo) for making personal attacks regarding her age instead of focusing on the issues she had raised.

This was after Nazri described her as a “ranting old aunty” when commenting on her critical views regarding Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and 1MDB.

In a Sinar Harian report today, the minister claimed that Rafidah’s criticism of the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal showed that she was still affected by her defeat nine years ago.

Nazri said since Shahrizat had been cleared of involvement in the case – which was first revealed in the 2011 Auditor-General's report – Rafidah should respect the authorities' decision on the matter.

Meanwhile, the TMI article quoted a Finance Ministry parliamentary reply that NFC still owed the government more than RM248 million from the RM250 million soft loan it received.

The ministry said the feedlot has yet to pay a total of RM248,193,737.81 as of Jan 31 this year.

“NFC paid a sum of RM34.98 million in 2012 and 2013.

“The total amount seized from NFC and related companies under the Accountant-General’s Department of Malaysia is RM46,934,703.17,” it added.  Mkini