Political sex scandal erupts in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur: A sex video featuring a man allegedly a top opposition Malaysian MP and a foreign prostitute having sex has emerged, media reports said.

The 30-minute video, which showed the supposedly high profile Member of Parliament in various compromising positions, is set to rock the Malaysian political arena.

The video recorded on Feb 21 was found in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.

Press representatives were taken to a hotel room individually to view the video footage by a group of unknown people led by a person, who only wanted to be known as Datuk T.

Datuk T said he wanted the media to watch the footage showing the politician before sending the copy to him and his wife “to identify the person in the video” a week from now.

He said if the individual in the video was the politician he had identified to the media, "then he and his wife must step down from politics.”

Datuk T said saying he was not “the pious person with high moral values and integrity as portrayed, and therefore is not fit to be leader.”

Datuk T said if the two did not quit politics, “I will call on several NGOs (non-government organisations) to set up an independent panel to investigate and seek professional forensic services to study the authenticity of the recordings.”

Datuk T claimed he had stumbled upon the video after he was asked by the politician to search for his watch in the room where the sexual encounter had taken place.

“As I could not find the watch on the table, I searched for it behind the dresser. I was shocked to find many strands of wires behind the dresser.

“On close inspection, I found four well-hidden CCTV cameras, I tried to open the two dresser drawers and found one was locked.

“I prised open the locked drawer using a sharp object. I found an active CCTC recorder. I disconnected the wiring and took the recorder out of the hotel,’’ he said, adding that no one had the recording except him.
“I will not hand over copies to any quarters for fear of reproduction and distribution,’’ he said.

Members of the media including The Star viewed the video clip on a computer at the hotel room, where Datuk T was heavily guarded. The Star journalist was searched and had his mobile phone taken away before being allowed to view the video.

The other members of the media included those from Bernama, New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia, China Press, the Internet portals, foreign news agencies and at least one opposition organ.

The video clip had sharp images and the woman appeared to be a fair-skinned foreigner, possibly an East Asian.

Meanwhile, with talk of the video having surfaced, PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad tweeted, saying the video was doctored.

Sex scandals have in the past rocked the Malaysian political scene.

Anwar Ibrahim, who leads the opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat and the PKR, is currently under trial on charge of sodomising a male aide, Saiful Bukhari.

He was sacked as deputy prime minister and finance minister in 1998 and was jailed on conviction.

The then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who sacked him, justified his action in his memoirs launched earlier this month, saying he had acted on evidence.

Former health minister Chua Soi Lek resigned three years ago after he was found having sex with a friend on video.

He now heads the Malaysian Chinese Association, a constituent of the ruling alliance Barisan Nasional.