Nazri: Dr M cause of rift - The Star

PARIT BUNTAR: Former Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is responsible for causing a rift in the party, supreme council member Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said.

Nazri, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said: ”He is the one doing harm to Umno. If he loves Umno, he should stop all this when, at this time, even opposition parties with different ideologies can work together.”

Nazri said if it had been him or anyone else who did what Dr Mahathir was doing, they would have been sacked from the party a long time ago.

“But I am only an ordinary member, not like him an extraordinary member,” Nazri, who is also Padang Rengas MP, told reporters after presenting aid to 124 storm victims in his constituency here yesterday.

Nazri was commenting on calls by Dr Mahathir for reforms in the party and for Abdullah to step down to assume responsibility for the poor showing of the Barisan Nasional in the general election.

Like Abdullah, he said, Dr Mahathir had also suffered defeats in the 1990 and 1999 elections and yet Umno members had supported him throughout the nine years.

[More at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/5/nation/20859890&sec=nation]