The spat between Umno leader Nazri Aziz and MCA continues to fester, with the latter's Heng Seai Kie warning the tourism minister's obstinance could hurt BN.

"Every single vote counts. One simple, scathing statement like (Nazri's) is completely destructive.

"It is not fair to the BN component parties that have put in a lot of effort to engage more voters," the Wanita MCA chief was reported by The Star today as saying at a press conference yesterday.

Heng said Chinese votes are essential for BN's victory in the coming election.

She was asked to comment on the ongoing row over Nazri insulting tycoon Robert Kuok, whom Umno leaders have been attacking as being ungrateful to the BN, to which they claimed the latter owed his success and wealth.

Nazri had called the billionaire a "pondan" (effeminate) and said Kuok should be stripped of his Malaysian citizenship.

Attacks against the Hong Kong-based businessman erupted after blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, at one time a fierce critic of the ruling party, accused Kuok of funding DAP to "topple" the BN government.

Heng said Nazri appeared to be helping DAP to insult MCA.

"He claimed that he was angry with Padang Rengas MCA for sabotaging his campaign in the previous election, but political sabotage is not new.

"I have experienced it and many have too, but no one has done what he did by openly criticising and attacking another component party," she was reported as saying.

"As a senior cabinet minister, as an adult, he should know what to do and put this to bed in a responsible manner," Heng said, likely referring to the calls by her MCA colleagues for Nazri to apologise for his remarks.

Nazri has had a long history of acrimony with the Chinese party. In 2011, he irked his BN colleagues by likening MCA to a “wife who complains all day long that she was being abused... but yet does not want to divorce her husband”.