KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — Umno lawmaker Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz says the "Bossku” phenomenon linked to Datuk Seri Najib Razak only benefits the former prime minister personally and not the Malay nationalist party — now in the federal Opposition.

In an interview with Sinar Harian today, Nazri said the support shown towards "Bossku” does not reflect the sentiment towards Umno.

The Padang Rengas MP, who has been openly critical of Najib’s appointment as the Barisan Nasional advisory board chairman, said the latter’s new role would also not benefit the party.

"The ‘Bossku’ phenomenon does not bring any impact to the party but more for personal gain. The support towards ‘Bossku’ cannot be measured as the amount of support towards the party.

"We had won in three by-elections because of the Umno-PAS cooperation, not because of Najib’s character.

"My question to Najib is, before when he was the leader but we lost the general election. Now what is he going to do as an advisor? What else can he advise?” Nazri was quoted as saying.

Nazri said Najib should have emulated past Umno presidents who resigned to take responsibility for the party’s poor showing in national polls, naming Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Nazri, an Umno supreme council member, said Dr Mahathir stepped down as Umno president in 2003 when the then Opposition swept 40 parliamentary seats.

He believed the fourth prime minister did so to reduce the impact on the party, adding that the same was done by Abdullah as well. The fifth prime minister relinquished the reins to Najib in April 2009.

"But in GE13, we continued to lose more seats under Najib. If according to past practices, Najib should have stepped down but never had offered himself to do so.

"He continues on and we suffered huge loss in GE14. The question is, we have to think about what we can do for the party as we care for it,” said Nazri.

Asked to explain his defence of Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as the party president despite facing criminal charges, Nazri cited other parties that have also done the same.

"Other parties like DAP, for example, had continued to defend its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng despite facing court trial. The same goes to PKR’s Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

"So why should we abandon our president that we had elected if other parties had not done the same? But if found guilty, then you should know what to do,” he told Sinar Harian.