Malaysia’s Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin speaks during a joint press conference at the prime minister’s office in Putrajaya. Manan VATSYAYANA/AFP
The People’s Justice Party (PKR) disciplinary board needs to find out how those who circulated the sex videos gained access to the phone numbers of party officers, said Malaysia’s Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin.
He said the videos were first spread using the WhatsApp messaging app in new groups created by the sender.
“These WhatsApp groups contained all the contact numbers of branch leaders and lower-ranked branch level office bearers.
“I don’t have access to this information. The question is who provided this information to create these WhatsApp groups,” said Azmin.
Azmin also said party leaders should take note of the PKR members who were seen with Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz when he was released on Saturday.
“This is alarming. The leadership must take a bold decision and investigate,” he said on Sunday.
Azmin and Haziq were seen in the viral sex videos which many deemed as a national scandal.
The latter was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Friday, as he was about to take a flight to Manila.
Haziq was released the next day and several PKR members were seen with him upon his release.
Azmin has denied he is the one in the video, saying that this was a plot to end his political career.
‘Gutter politics’
In a related development, Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has expressed sympathy for the family of Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, who has been linked to a sex video scandal.
She said she rejected any practice of gutter politics as she had experienced it before.
“I reject ‘gutter politics’ because I have been through it [and] I sympathise with Azmin’s family,” she said when commenting on the confession by Santubong PKR Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz that it was him in the sex video.
He also alleged that Azmin was the other man in the video, but the minister has categorically denied the allegation.
Dr Wan Azizah stressed that there was no place for dirty politics as all parties needed to focus on developing the country.
“We Malaysians have to think more about everything because we want to develop our country,” she told reporters after the Aidilfitri open house hosted by her husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is also Port Dickson MP, on Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, Anwar, when asked about claims that the video was created by him and PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli, said such talk was slander.
“What’s the reason for us to do such a thing? Some say it was due to threat, what threat?” said Anwar, who is PKR president.
‘Haunted and hounded’
Similarly, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang expressed concern that the sex video scandal could destroy the New Malaysia agenda.
He said the sex video scandal, which grabbed national headlines the past week, is ruling party Pakatan Harapan’s greatest challenge since the 14th General Election.
“For four days, the country has been agog, haunted and hounded by the sex video implicating a minister, which demonstrates its potency to destroy the Pakatan coalition and derail the New Malaysia agenda.
“Pakatan leaders must unite to forge ahead and not to be derailed from the New Malaysia agenda,” he said in his blog on Sunday.
The Iskandar Puteri MP said Malaysians must trust the police under newly-appointed Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Hamid Bador to carry out its duty independently, fairly and in a trustworthy manner to investigate the sex video scandal.
“This is why I advocate that the important principle must be re-established – that no one in Malaysia is above the law, whether [it is] the prime minister, cabinet minister, attorney general, inspector-general of police or other officers of the state.”
At the same time, Lim said the focus of the next Parliamentary session on July 1 should be the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill, not the sex video.
“Let us then make the July meeting a IPCMC Parliament by passing the IPCMC Bill next month so that the IPCMC can be set up – some 14 years after it was first mooted in 2005.”
He added that the proposed IPCMC Bill should be made public to garner feedback for at least a week before it is debated in Parliament, in order to show that there is room for greater consultation with civil society. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK/BERNAMA
