Members of Malaysian political party Bersatu say colleague Azmin Ali is should not become party leader because of claims he appeared in a gay sex video back in 2019.
In 2019 a video was shared online that allegedly showed two men engaged in sexual activity. Homosexual sex is illegal in Malaysia, a relic of Britain’s colonial rule of the nation. Those found guilty of homosexuality can face up to twenty years in prison.
The video that spread on social media six years ago consumed local political debate with suggestions one of the men was Ali, who was a government minister at the time.
Accusations of homosexuality are common occurrences in Malaysia politics, current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has been charged with sodomy and corruption on several occasions and spent several years in prison, before being formally pardoned.
Tasek Gelugor MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan says Ali should not be considered because it’s never been proved that he was not the unknown man in the viral clip.
Back in 2019 government aide Muhammad Haziq Abdul Aziz said he was one of the people in the video and accused Azmin Ali as being the other person captured. The politician has denied being involved and suggested it is part of a plot to stop his political career.
Government agency CyberSecurity Malaysia said the video was genuine but they were unable to identify the people in the clip, even resorting to facial recognition technology to try and determine if the politician was involved. Back in the 2019 the country’s Attorney General even had the clips sent for analysis in the USA.
The division within the party spilled out into the public realm on Monday when Wan Saiful Wan Jan held a media conference, but some of his colleagues have labeled his comments as “slanderous”.
