KUALA LUMPUR— The formalisation of the union between PAS and Umno yesterday means the end of the spirit of Barisan Nasional (BN), the coalition’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said today.
Nazri said the union of the two biggest Malay parties in the country effectively puts an end to the spirit of multiculturalism that BN was built on, following the racial riots in the 1969.
“With this union the BN spirit of representing multiculturalism which was formulated in 1969 has ended,” he said in a press conference.- MALAY MAIL
Nazri will not attend BN meeting on Friday
MOHAMED Nazri Aziz said he will not attend the Barisan Nasional supreme council meeting on Friday after component parties MCA and MIC threatened not to show up if he was present.
The BN secretary-general said he did not want to be a stumbling block to the meeting.
“They will have a chance to discuss my position – for them to say they do not want Nazri Aziz to be secretary-general.
“I have no problem with being removed. I want to bring up my appointment and discuss it at the meeting,” he said at a press conference today.
The Padang Rengas MP said he will not resign as BN secretary-general as he did not want to be pushed out.
“I don’t want to be pushed out. It’s okay if they remove me at the meeting,” he said.
The post was offered to Khairy Jamaluddin but the Rembau MP rejected it.
“For six, seven months, nobody wanted this post. Then Ahmad Zahid (Hamidi) offered it to me, so I took it up,” he said.
Nazri said after he accepted it, BN chairman Zahid announced it at the MIC annual general assembly last year.
“All the MIC delegates cheered me when it was announced. After four months, to say they were not consulted, I don’t know what they are talking about.”
The component parties said Nazri’s appointment as secretary-general is invalid under the coalition’s constitution.
MCA president Wee Ka Siong and his MIC counterpart, S.A. Vigneswaran, said under the BN constitution, the appointment of the secretary-general is to be made after consultation with the supreme council.
They said their parties will not attend the Friday meeting if Nazri insists on being present as secretary-general.
Wee and Vigneswaran said Nazri’s appointment was never discussed or officially agreed on by the supreme council but was announced instead by Zahid at the opening of MIC’s general assembly last October.
“If Nazri is stubborn and attends the meeting, its validity will be questioned,” they said.
MCA and MIC have taken issue with Nazri’s remarks on the Semenyih campaign trail, which they said smacked of racism.
Nazri did not respect the component parties while making his remarks, they said.
However, Nazri fired back, saying BN would not lose anything if the two parties left it, and that he had not made any racist statement.
On the campaign trail in Semenyih, Nazri said the appointment of non-Muslims as the attorney-general, chief justice, and finance minister was causing fear among Malay Muslims.
The former de facto law minister also said non-Malays should not question Malay privileges as the former also enjoys special privileges, such as vernacular schools. – THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
MALAY MAIL / THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
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