This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 18, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (Pakatan Harapan-Port Dickson) says his deputy Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali should resign if he is proven to be one of the parties involved in a video showing two men engaging in intimate acts.

“My initial view was [for Mohamed Azmin] to not resign. [However,] it would depend on the investigations. If the investigations are conclusive in terms of the participants in the so-called act, then I think he should resign,” Anwar said in response to a question about how he felt about the incident, and whether Mohamed Azmin should step down.

“But if we haven’t ascertained the truth and the veracity of the people in the videos, then he has the option [to not resign].”

On Anwar’s statement later yesterday, Mohamed Azmin, also met at the Parliament lobby, said: “Read my lips ... Tell him [that] he must look at the man in the mirror.”

When asked to explain his comments, Mohamed Azmin said: “Ask Anwar to be muhasabah (reflect on his own actions).”

The exchange yesterday came after PKR information chief Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin, also the deputy primary industries and commodities minister, said on Tuesday those implicated in the sex video should go on leave.

Nine people have so far been arrested by the police investigating the sex video, including Anwar’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, also PKR’s Kuala Kangsar, Perak division chief.

Former PKR member Haziq Aziz, who admitted he was one of the men in the video and identified the other as Mohamed Azmin, was among those remanded to assist in investigations.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, meanwhile, reportedly told reporters at an event yesterday that it is up to Mohamed Azmin whether he wants to go on leave or stay on as no one is guilty until proven so.

“The issue of the lewd video is not about exposing somebody’s wrongdoing; it is about politics,” he was quoted as saying, adding that the video was intended to prevent somebody from being successful.