In an interview with China Press, the Padang Rengas MP said he believed the MCA division would continue the boycott since they had not issued any statement about ending it.
“The entire MCA Padang Rengas division committee is boycotting me, what can I do? So, MCA is not my friend,” said Nazri who is also the tourism and culture minister and Umno supreme council member.
He said the situation clearly showed who was not practising the Barisan Nasional (BN) spirit.
Nazri has been criticised severely in recent days by MCA and other Chinese leaders after he called multi-billionaire Robert Kuok a “pondan” (pansy) and challenged the 94-year-old tycoon to contest in the 14th general election (GE14).
His remarks followed allegations made by blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin that Kuok funded DAP in a bid to overthrow the BN government and replace it with a Chinese-led administration. Kuok has denied the allegations and said he reserved the right to sue the blogger.
Outraged MCA leaders demanded that Nazri apologised to Kuok but he refused.
Nazri told MCA to pay attention to the actions of its divisions as GE14 would be held soon.
The bad blood between Nazri and MCA is believed to have arisen during the time when Dr Chua Soi Lek helmed the Chinese-based party, and the two feuded with each other in the Chinese media just before GE13.
The quarrel led to MCA’s Padang Rengas division imposing its boycott of Nazri.
Nazri was elected in 1995 and 1999 in the Chenderoh parliamentary seat in Perak before switching to Padang Rengas in 2004, and he went on to retain the seat in the next two general elections.
In GE13, he defeated PKR’s Meor Ahmad Isharra Ishak with a small majority of 2,230 votes.
Nazri, a politician not known to be diplomatic with either friends or foes, reiterated in the interview that he would not apologise to Kuok because the latter had criticised the BN government in his memoir published last year.
He reminded MCA not to make the matter a racial issue because he is a “BN minister”.
As a representative of the BN government, he would hit back at any criticisms against the government.
“MCA should know I only spoke about this matter and did not deliberately criticise anyone in particular in the Chinese community. When I commented on the Robert Kuok issue, I didn’t touch on or attack MCA. I don’t understand why MCA is attacking me.”
Nazri said he was unafraid and would not apologise even if the entire election machinery of MCA was trained on him personally.
“If they choose to attack me, I will fight back and not run away.”
He said he respected democracy and when he accused MCA of not representing the Chinese community, it was because the party lost badly in Chinese-majority areas in GE13 and only managed to win seven parliamentary seats.
Nazri said he enjoyed cordial relations with DAP as the party had won most of the Chinese votes in GE13, and received the mandate to rule Penang.
“That is why I said DAP represented the voice of the Chinese community because I respected the results of GE13.
“DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng is the chief minister of Penang, and that is why I cooperate with him because DAP heads the state government. That is the decision of the Chinese community.”
He added that the MCA should not have dragged Prime Minister Najib Razak into the issue.