KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia's health minister resigned from his
cabinet post on Wednesday after admitting his role in a video
showing him 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.
"I won't be the first and I won't be the last (politician to be
caught in such a situation)," Chua, a married man with three
children, told a hastily convened news conference.
"It is up to the public to judge me," he added.
Chua admitted 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.
He 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 added.
The video is believed to have been taken from closed-circuit
television and was recorded two years ago, according to the state
news agency Bernama.
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.
The resignation will hit Abdullah's government. He is expected to
announce general elections this year although his administration's
mandate runs until May 2009.
Sex scandals among politicians are not uncommon in Malaysia, with
several members of the ruling United Malays National Organisation
(UMNO) 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."
- AFP/ms/so
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/320300/1/.html
