Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz

Who is Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz?

Dato' Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Tan Sri Abdul Aziz is a Malaysian politician from the United Malays National Organisation, and is as of 2008 a Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of parliamentary affairs. In June 2005 Nazri caused controversy when he shouted the phrase "racist" 28 times in Parliament. A request by opposition Democratic Action Party lawmaker Fong Po Kuan for Nazri to take back his comments went unheeded. The incident occurred during a debate on the Malaysian Medical Council's derecognition of Crimea State Medical University medical degrees; most Malaysian students sent to study there were of Indian extraction. Nazri has since used the phrase "bloody racist" on Tun Dr. Mahathir because the latter supports a controversial government programme that allegedly indoctrinates racist sentiments in civil servants and public university students.

Nazri was originally also the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of legal affairs and judicial reform. After the 2008 general election, which saw the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition's majority in Parliament significantly reduced, the then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reshuffled his Cabinet and gave Nazri's legal affairs portfolio to Zaid Ibrahim.