Man in sex video not Anwar, says Uthaya

The man in the sex video is not opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, said HRP secretary general P Uthayakumar after watching a copy of the video that he said had arrived in the mail on Apr 29.

The HRP leader is the second to receive a copy of the notorious video, after Kapar MP S Manikavasagam found one in his mail box last week.

Uthayakumar (left, showng envelope) maintains that the video is a political conspiracy led by Umno in collusion with the police Special Branch.

He said he received a CD containing the 22-minute sex video shown to reporters at Carcosa Sri Negara on Mar 21, by airmail from Thailand.

The bubble-foam envelope bore Thai stamps and was postmarked Apr 25, Songkhla, Thailand.

He viewed the video with several HRP activists yesterday, he said.

“We stopped the CD in strategic positions, numerous times, looking at (the perpetrator's) face; we looked at it again and again. We believe it is not him,” the HRP leader said in a press conference at the party headquarters in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur today.

'Enough gutter politics' 

Uthayakumar's defence of Anwar is surprising as he and his organisation are vocal critics of the opposition leader.

Quizzed on his thoughts on why the CD was sent to him, the activist suspected the sender wanted him to “lend credence to their cause”.

Uthayakumar said as a matter of principle, he would not fall into their trap, standing firm that despite differences with Anwar he believed the man in the video is not the PKR de-facto leader (left, with wife Wan Azizah).

“I believe that this is a political conspiracy with a view to kill off Anwar, politically,” he alleged.

Uthayakumar accused Umno and the police Special Branch of colluding to get rid of the politician whom he said is the rallying point for the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, that is gaining ground against the BN-led government.

Calling it “gutter politics” he likened the video scandal to what Hindraf leaders faced in 2007 when the government had detained them for alleged links to the LTTE rebel movement in Sri Lanka.

They were the Umno-led BN's tactics to the discredit dissenters, he said.

“(In 2007) the government had used the print and electronic media to influence public opinion against us,” said the lawyer.

Uthayakumar said he plans to hand deliver the CD to Prime Minister Najib Razak's office next week, along with a memorandum from HRP.

“He must stop this level of gutter politics, and apologise for having accused us of having LTTE links,” he said.

Source: Malaysiakini by Hazlan Zakaria