The Speaker of Malaysia's Dewan Rakyat (parliament) on Tuesday rejected suggestions that a sex video, allegedly showing opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, be screened in the house.
Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia said that he will not allow Parliament to be used by the parties for furthering their political agenda. "As long as I am still speaker, I will not allow any party to use the house for their political means," he said. He noted that MPs were free to play their political games outside parliament but could not use the house for such purposes.
His refusal came amid a strong denial by Ibrahim's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, that the man in the video was her husband. Wan Azizah, who is the chief of the main opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), told a packed media conference here that she had watched the short video clip posted on YouTube.
“It is not him. It is clear that the body and physique of the actor in the video is extremely different from that of Anwar. “This is strengthened by the fact that for over a year now, he has been accompanied by his children whenever he exercises and undergoes physiotherapy as part of the recuperative measures for his injured spine,” Star online, website of The Star reported. Besides a strong denial by Anwar himself, there was a strong rebuttal by the opposition parties. Wan Azizah and her daughter Nurul Izzah were accompanied by Karpal Singh, the ethnic Indian chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP).
PKR and DAP are key constituents of the opposition alliance, Pakatan Rakyat(PR). Karpal Singh condemned the lack of action against the “Datuk Trio” — a businessman and two politicians all having Datuk, the traditional Malaysian title — who made the video public. Singh called for them to be arrested immediately. Anwar Ibrahim on Monday said the sex video may have caused PKR a few bruises ahead of the Sarawak state elections, but he would not be distracted by the allegations.
Admitting that he has declined to comment on the video clip during his visits to the state, Anwar said that others have misconceived his lack of response as being defensive. “I want to give my full concentration to the issues in Sarawak. “I will fight them (the perpetrators of the sex video clip) on any grounds.
But do you expect me to trust the system,” Anwar Ibrahim asked. Ibrahim is currently on trial, his second since 1998, on the charge of sodomising an aide. He has alleged that the charge, as also the sex video allegedly showing a man having sex with a foreign woman in a hotel room, is “politically motivated”. There have been charges that the video is doctored to implicate Ibrahim. The police investigating the case have quoted unnamed experts to say the video is not doctored. Karpal Singh on Monday suggested that the video be shown in the country's parliament. He said although showing such a film would invite the censorship law pertaining to public exhibition, showing the video within the four walls of the house would not attract the legal provisions.