“Politicians are rascals”

By Shanon Shah, The Nut Graph

DE facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz is one Barisan Nasional (BN) leader whose exact position on issues is difficult to pin down.

On one hand, he trumpets the usual BN line by supporting the Internal Security Act and denying that there is discrimination against non-bumiputera Malaysians. His predecessor, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, also accused him of breaking the government's word by revealing the amount of ex-gratia payments made to the judges sacked in the 1988 judicial crisis.

On the other hand, Nazri has also surprised critics with occasional, unapologetic deviations from what appears to be the standard BN position. In November 2008, Nazri was the lone BN Member of Parliament (MP) who supported the integrity and independence of the judiciary parliamentary caucus set up by the opposition. In fact, he called on more BN MPs to support the caucus.

And while several of his BN counterparts did not hesitate to capitalise on media exposure of intimate pictures of Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Elizabeth Wong, Nazri said: "This should not happen because she is a wakil rakyat (people's representative) and she is doing her job as one; to get her down through such methods is not good. I hope she can find the strength in herself to endure this and ignore it."

So what exactly is the kind of Malaysia Nazri wants? He tells The Nut Graph in an exclusive interview in Parliament on 2 March 2009.

READ MORE HERE