The Malaysian health minister resigned his cabinet post yesterday after admitting he had been secretly filmed having sex with a female friend in a hotel room.
Chua Soi Lek, 61, the most senior member of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government to resign after a sex scandal, announced that he was also stepping down from parliament.
"The people could not accept [the scandal], so to me and my family it was better for me to resign so that I am not a liability to the national leadership," Chua, a married man with three children, told a hastily convened news conference.
"I won't be the first and I won't be the last [politician to be caught in such a situation]," he said. "It is up to the public to judge me."
A grim-looking prime minister said he accepted Chua's resignation and thanked him for taking responsibility for his actions.
"The public not only wants [the government] to act swiftly on issues and carry out our duties well," Abdullah said.
"The issue of morality is also important to the people," he said.
Chua admitted on Tuesday that he was in the video, which has been splashed on the front pages of Malaysian newspapers since the DVD started circulating in southern Johor State last week.
Chua is vice president of the Malaysian Chinese Association, a key part of Abdullah's coalition government.
Abdullah said Chua's resignation would not affect upcoming general elections, which he is expected to announce this year.
Chua said his family was fully supportive of his decision and admitted that the scandal was taking a toll.
"I live in a very close-knit family but I am confident that my family will support me," he said.
The video is believed to have been taken from closed-circuit TV and was recorded two years ago, the state news agency Bernama said.
Chua met Abdullah on Monday to discuss the situation, Bernama said, and it was decided then that he had to go public with his identity.
Sex scandals among politicians are not uncommon in Malaysia, with several members of the ruling United Malays National Organization having been forced to resign in recent years.
Defiant to the last, Chua drew a line between his public and private life, refusing to comment on the incident portrayed in the tape.
"If you want to discuss my private life, please do," he told reporters at his press conference. "Maybe you would like to watch the videotape with me."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
The Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader made a rare public appearance yesterday, an Afghan government spokesman said, leading thousands of worshipers in prayers marking Eid al-Fitr. Hibatullah Akhundzada has made only a handful of public appearances since inheriting the leadership of the Taliban in 2016 and leading the movement back to power with the withdrawal of US forces in 2021. Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said prayer in the largest mosque in Kandahar was “performed under the leadership of the supreme leader.” In a statement on X, he said the early-morning service “was attended by thousands of compatriots” in the southern province considered the