PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Close friends of the man who was allegedly in a gay sex video with a Malaysian minister said they never knew their friend was gay.
On Wednesday (June 12), Mr Muhammad Haziq Abdul Aziz confessed that it was him and the Cabinet minister in the video that has gone viral.
Two friends of Mr Muhammad Haziq said they had known him for more than a decade, and as long as they had known him, he was never gay and was in a steady relationship with a woman for years.
"He had a girlfriend last time. They were together for quite a while but I heard they had recently broken up," said one.
A schoolmate who studied with Mr Muhammad Haziq at Sekolah Sains Alam Shah in Cheras said he was religious and active in the school's Islamic student body during their time there.
"I also know he had a long-time girlfriend. He comes from a very kind and respectable family in Kuching. He is very close to his family. I convinced his mother to let him take up law after SPM. In 2013, we went to Toulon, France, together for a leadership course.
"We co-founded Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia and ran it for some time. Then we went our separate ways because I was starting to do more NGO work while he was more inclined to partisan politics," said one friend.
Mr Muhammad Haziq was also once very much a supporter of Barisan Nasional (BN) before supporting Pakatan Harapan (PH), then switching back again.
Friends said that they were mostly surprised when he was appointed the senior private secretary to Deputy Primary Industries and Commodities Minister Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, as they did not know that he was supporting PH.
"Throughout many years knowing Haziq, he's very easily influenced. He does have ambition, and would do anything to achieve it," said one friend who asked to remain anonymous.
"When I first met him, he was a strong supporter of Umno, and all we did was talk politics. Then, he became a Pakatan Harapan supporter. A few years later, he was following a Sarawak Barisan minister here and there, and I assumed he was for Barisan again.
"Then, suddenly, I was shocked when he was appointed the private secretary to Shamsul."
Another friend, who knew him well during his university days, said that Mr Muhammad Haziq was very much into activism on campus.
"He was once suspended in 2012 for having taken part in the anti-PTPTN (National Higher Education Fund Corporation) demonstration in Dataran Merdeka and vandalising photographs of national leaders.
"He graduated and practised law for a short while in Sarawak. In fact, he was practising two months before he joined the minister's team as an aide," said the college mate.
The Star had reported then that Mr Muhammad Haziq and two other students were fined and suspended after they were found guilty of having hung funeral garlands on national leaders' photographs.
Another close friend who always followed Mr Muhammad Haziq said that he was surprised to see the photograph of him with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim at a movie outing recently.
"I did not know he had such high connections, what more going to the cinema with a high-ranking politician," said the friend.
On May 4, Mr Muhammad Haziq posted a photograph of himself with Datuk Seri Anwar and his family after watching the movie Avengers: Endgame.
"Second time watching the movie. This time with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Avengers, assemble!" Mr Muhammad Haziq posted.
For the past two days, a video of two men engaging in sexual acts, with one resembling a Cabinet minister, had been making its rounds on social media and via WhatsApp.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Muhammad Haziq confessed on Facebook that he was the man in the sex video. He named the minister allegedly in the video and said the latter was not fit to be a leader.
Mr Muhammad Haziq also called on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the minister for corruption.
