SHAH ALAM • Malaysia's Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali has warned those plotting to bring him down that his loyalty has its limits, amid a rift within his Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) over a sex video that allegedly implicated him.
Speaking to hundreds of PKR leaders and members during a thanksgiving gathering at the Selangor Menteri Besar's official residence on Sunday, Datuk Seri Azmin said he has never betrayed his friends.
"Whatever attacks are thrown at me, I will still rise to bring new politics to this nation. Let me face this alone, let me face the person or people whom I have known before, but our loyalty has its limits. I am loyal to the truth and justice," he said, according to The Malay Mail.
Mr Azmin also said he will work with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, who said last Saturday he had accepted the police findings that Mr Azmin was not one of the two men shown in the video engaging in sexual acts.
"Yes (I will work with Anwar). He is president and I'm the deputy," Mr Azmin told reporters at the gathering yesterday, according to The Star. "Don't provoke the president and deputy president. We have been together for many decades."
Mr Azmin said he held the gathering to thank those who had supported him while he was "slandered for five weeks" over the gay sex video.
"The Inspector-General of Police, Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Bador, himself has verified there were invisible hands involved, with hundreds of thousands of ringgit spent to bring me down. You may plan with the big tycoons but God disposes (of those plans)," he was quoted by The Star as saying.
Mr Azmin also pledged his loyalty to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who he said has advised him to concentrate on improving the country's economy.
Tun Dr Mahathir chairs Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, which, like the PKR, is one of the four parties in the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition.
"We ask the young to vote, but the young cannot accept gutter politics. They want to see a government with values, but there is still a group that is willing to play gutter politics. I promise to stand up to any attacks against me," said Mr Azmin.
When the sex video first surfaced last month, Mr Azmin denied claims that he was in the video and dismissed it as a plot to destroy his political career.
He has also claimed that insiders within the PKR were responsible for circulating it.
"I am not surprised at what has happened as I know who is behind this. I know, but we leave it to the authorities.
"I may look calm, but do not think my calmness has nothing lurking (beneath). Do not insinuate. I will remain loyal to the PM. I will not be led by the nose but by principles," he said on Sunday.
Mr Azmin, together with a number of PKR central leadership council members and 15 MPs, did not show up at a PKR retreat in Port Dickson over the weekend.
While they reportedly had valid reasons for not attending it, such as work commitments, their absence came amid last week's escalating war of words between Datuk Seri Anwar and Mr Azmin over the sex video.
Mr Anwar had said Mr Azmin should resign if he had indeed been identified as one of the two men in the video.
Mr Azmin retaliated by telling Mr Anwar to "look in the mirror".
Mr Anwar later softened his stance at the PKR retreat and said he accepted it was not Mr Azmin in the video. He also said that he and Mr Azmin should work together as a team.
As of Sunday, police had arrested and remanded 11 men in connection with the sex video.
Among them were former PKR youth leader Haziq Aziz and Mr Anwar's political secretary and Perak PKR chief Farhash Mubarak. Mr Haziq had last month confessed publicly that he was one of the two men in the video and alleged that the other person was Mr Azmin.
