The feud between Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz and former international trade and industries minister Rafidah Aziz heated up today, with the latter's past approved permit (AP) scandal turned into verbal cannon fodder.

Responding to Rafidah's criticism of him being "myopic," Nazri let fly, saying she was the one who was not just shortsighted but also racist.

He said this was because she told delegates at the 2005 Umno general assembly that her distribution of APs to bumiputera companies had helped break the Chinese monopoly on imported foreign cars.

"That's what I call shortsighted. How can you do that? It reeks of racism.

"Taking away APs from Chinese companies and giving them to bumiputera companies. What was she trying to tell us?

"That's the beginning of why the Chinese in Malaysia started to hate BN... what's wrong if the Chinese were doing good business?" Nazri said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Rafidah had called Nazri "myopic" after the latter said her criticism of the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) and the RM248 million in soft loans it owed the government, showed she was still bitter about losing her post as Wanita Umno chief to Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (photo).

Elaborating on this today, Nazri said Rafidah, who is known as the 'Iron Lady,' is well known for fighting for women's rights. 

"Rafidah is for me the champion of women rights. But she did not champion Shahrizat at all. 

"Shahrizat did nothing wrong, but she had to pay a high price just because she was the wife of (NFC executive chairperson) Mohamad Salleh Ismail," he said. 

He said among others, Shahrizat had lost her cabinet post and senatorship simply because of what her husband had "allegedly done."

"Why should the wife take the blame... Every woman should come out and defend Shahrizat," he added. 

He also prayed for Shahrizat to be returned to a place of prominence as she deserved. 

As for the funds owed by NFC to the government, Nazri said the company had spent around RM170 million as startup expenditure. 

He said NFC would have been able to recover this money had business had been allowed to continue, but said otherwise it would have been "wang hangus" (burnt money). 

He also said that NFC had some RM86 million frozen under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.