Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz

Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz (Jawi: محمد نظري بن عبدالعزيز; born 15 May 1954) is a Malaysian politician and diplomat who has served as Malaysian Ambassador to the United States since February 2023.

At the grassroots level, Nazri was elected Exco of the Malaysian UMNO Youth Movement in 1978.

He was also appointed as the Chairman of the International Affairs Bureau of the Malaysian UMNO Youth Movement from 1986 to 1996 and the Chairman of the Barisan Nasional Malaysia Youth from 1990 to 1994.

Opposition Member of Parliament Karpal Singh said Nazri had misled Parliament when he said judges involved in the 1988 Judicial crisis were not sacked but were asked to take early retirement.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad also refuted Nazri's suggestion saying Tun Salleh Abas and two of the five other judges involved in the 1988 judicial crisis had not been dismissed but were asked to retire early.

He said Salleh Abas was sacked as Lord President but obtained a pension on grounds of compassion.

In addition, he was also appointed as a Member of the UMNO Supreme Council from 1990 to 2018.

In addition, he was appointed Senator of the Senate from 1991 to 1995.

He was later appointed as UMNO Youth Vice Chief in 1993 before acting as UMNO Youth Chief from the following year until 1996.

He was appointed chairman of MARA from 17 March 1993 to 23 July 1995, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department from 1995 to 1999 and Deputy Minister of Finance II since 1999 until the dissolution of the Cabinet ahead of the general election in December 1999.

His experience as a Member of Parliament began after winning the Chenderoh parliamentary seat on the Barisan Nasional ticket in the 1995 Malaysian general election which he later successfully defended in the next term, (1999-2004).

He was later appointed Minister of Entrepreneur Development until 2004.

In the 2004 Malaysian general election, he moved to the Padang Rengas parliamentary seat as a result of the demarcation by the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC).

He managed to win it after defeating the PKR candidate, Mohd Zolkafli bin Yahaya.

Nazri was originally the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of legal affairs and judicial reform since 2004.

In June 2005, Nazri caused controversy when he shouted the phrase "racist" (or variants of it) 28 times in Parliament against the Member of the Opposition, M. Kulasegaran.

A request by opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) 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 (CSMU) 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.

In 2006, he been called the hatchetman of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, then Prime Minister of Malaysia, by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, for defending Abdullah in Mahathir's ongoing criticisms against the government.

He managed to retain the seat in 2008, 2013 and 2018 general elections.

After the 2008 general election, which saw the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition's majority in Parliament significantly reduced, the then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reshuffled his cabinet and gave Nazri's legal affairs portfolio to Zaid Ibrahim but only lasted for 6 months when Zaid resigned in September 2008.

He was the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of law and parliamentary affairs.

In 2009, photos surfaced of a woman and a man rumoured to be Nazri in a compromising position but several politicians who were close to him said the man in the pictures is not him.

In September 2010, he came out openly in the defence of Prime Minister Najib's 1Malaysia policy, saying that he is a Malaysian first and a Malay next.

This is in complete opposition to that expressed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, who has time and again reiterated that he is Malay first and Malaysian second.

He served as the Minister of Tourism and Culture from May 2013 to May 2018, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of legal affairs from March 2004 to May 2013, Minister of Entrepreneur Development from December 1999 to March 2004, Deputy Minister of Finance I from November 1996 to December 1999, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department from May 1995 to November 1996 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Padang Rengas from March 2004 to November 2022.

Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz was born in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia.

He is the alumnus of Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

He has an educational background in law and is qualified as a barrister of Lincoln's Inn.

In 2016, he was criticised for his decision of threatening to stop tourism funding from his ministry to Sabah and Sarawak if both the states did not implement a proposed tourism service tax fee of between RM5 and RM30 on each hotel room booking.

In response to his statement, the Sabah State Tourism, Environment and Culture Assistant Minister Pang Nyuk Ming stated:

It is the "duty and responsibility" of the Federal Government to assist Sabah in all areas.

To threaten to stop tourism funding from his ministry to Sabah if we do not implement his proposal is truly uncalled for and against the fundamentals of the federal government.

If the minister (Nazri) dares to carry out his threat on Sabah, the state (Sabah) must then call on the federal government to surrender all its allocation for the state directly to the Sabah Treasury so that the state can decide on its usage in accordance to its own priority.

Following criticism over his tourism tax fee plan by Sarawak State Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Nazri responded by chiding the minister by calling him a “greenhorn” and “behaving like a gangster”.

His response received backlash from other government-allied parties who perceived his words as being “too rude” and “far from being constructive”.

Abdul Rahman Dahlan was attacked with similar words after Nazri perceived him as being defensive towards Karim.

As a result of his comment, the Sarawak state government made a decision to withdraw their participation from Tourism Malaysia.

Nazri continued with his stance and said he did not regret the Sarawak decision while stressing that he did not intend to punish Sarawak and would be fair towards the state.