Haziq Aziz is a Malaysian cabinet member who serves as the Senior Private Secretary to the Deputy Minister of Primary Industries and Commodities. Or rather, he was until earlier this month.
About two weeks ago, Aziz was ousted from his government position after a sexually explicit video of him with another man leaked online.
The video quickly made the rounds on social media and, in response, Aziz was forced to make a videotaped “confession,” admitting to appearing in the video.
He said the explicit video was shot on May 11 in his hotel room at the Sheraton Hotel Four Points. He also said it was recorded without his knowledge or consent.
After his “confession,” Aziz went into hiding, deleting his social media pages and ignoring all requests for comment from reporters.
Until now.
“This sex video scandal has affected my political dream,” he now tells The Straits Times in a heartbreaking new interview. “I have to forget about becoming a politician.”
When asked about why he made the “confession,” Aziz replies, “The Malay-Muslim community can’t accept this kind of behavior. But one thing is I admit, I did it. It was a mistake and the right thing to do was to confess.”
Aziz recalls the moment he learned about the video:
I found out about the video at 8 AM when I woke up on June 11. I was really shocked. … At first, I did not want to admit it was me. At first, I felt afraid as a personal thing about me went viral. I was thinking of [going into hiding]. That is why I deleted all my social media accounts.
…My family was very sad about this. On the day it went viral, my mum cried non-stop. My family was even afraid to leave the house. When I made the video confession, they were shocked. At first, they thought that the video confession was fake. I told them, “Look it was not fake, it was me.” They had to accept it.
Honestly, my family is very sad because my family is very conservative. And they want to [take care of] the good name of the family.
Homosexuality is considered a crime in Malaysia, punishable with up to 20 years in prison and/or whipping. The country has no legal protections for LGBTQ people, and just last year, two women were publicly caned for “attempting lesbian sex.”
The U.S. State Department warns LGBTQ travelers that they may face discrimination or even violence while visiting the country.
Asked if he’s afraid about what will happen to him now he’s “confessed” to homosexual acts, Aziz replies, “Of course, yes. I thought about that. But I had no choice. My safety and my life are quite important.”
Aziz adds that the real person who should be punished is whoever set up the spy cam and leaked the video online, as the sex was “consensual between two adults.”
Since the scandal broke, Aziz has been laying low, living in fear as he awaits his fate.
“I don’t have my phone now,” he says. “I have thrown it away as I am afraid that someone will track me and kill me. I am very paranoid now.”
Aziz spends most of his days at home, reading books or watching TV and trying to tune out the world.
“I have not read anything posted online,” he says. “I don’t want to become stressed.”
“Right now,” he adds, “I don’t have a plan.”
Related: Politician could face prison time after being outed by an explicit gay video
Hussain-TheCanadian
Queen are you insane?
You’re a politician and you allowed yourself to be recorded? And you admitted that it was you in the video?
Ok why did you record the encounter? Now the crazies and religious right wingers in Malaysia will run with this story.
Brian
You didn’t read the article?
Or you read it but didn’t believe it?
Are you even trying to be informed?
Hussain-TheCanadian
The Irony is misplaced………………………………………………….Queen.
Stephen
Hussain you are ignoring him. Judging him blaming him. How shameful is your behaviour? He said …. it was recorded with out my consent and without my knowledge. A camera in a smoke detector, behind a wall, in the closet. It was a straight attempt to set him up and assassinate his career and destroy his reputation.
You ignored that, Hussain. You rush to judge making you as homophobic and just a sad pathetic gossip monger judging from your armchair is soot easy. When you learn to read let me know. You might grow some compassion.
Believe nothing the government says about this event. Nothing. Their draconian sexuality laws are there to provoke judgement and destroy kindness. And destroys lives. And that’s the more liberal Muslim law country in the series of homophobes.
Kangol2
He needs to get his cute self out of Malaysia and on that rainbow railroad to Thailand, Vietnam, or some other nearby country where he will not be persecuted for his sexual orientation or the gay sex video.
Chrisk
Damn and I was planning a two week stay there too. Ha. Hell no would I ever visit any Muslim dominant country. Muslims are fine here and say Canada but get them together in any other place and it’s back to the stone age. Crazy.
Suroth
What an ignorant statement.
Chrisk
Oh I’m sorry. That was so not pc of me to say. Let me correct that. Most Muslims are very progressive and and just love us to death. They love to toss us off bldgs, hang us from ropes, stone us, etc 😉
Hussain-TheCanadian
@ ChrisK
Chris you crack me up; I suggest you do what I do, and hound your elected officials every time they try to bomb a Muslim majority country, one of the end results is refugees and immigrants.
Trump might bomb Iran soon, so hold on to your hat, might get another wave of Muslims coming our way.
poundmetoo
@ suroth poor you!
David
First of all, the state dept “Warning” is way overblown. As far as LGBT travel is concerned Malaysia is far safer than Jamaica or many parts of the US South.
My Husband and I honeymooned in Malaysia (LangKawi Island) and when we were checking into the resort I was convinced there was going to be an issue (Two men, one bed, do the math…) but nobody even blinked. As I was turning away from the Check in desk the Clerk called my name and I though “uh oh… here it comes… she was going ask if we didn’t in fact want two beds instead….” I turned back… and said “yes?” the clerk smiled a big smile and said “Make sure you latch your bungalow door after you close it.. our monkeys have learned to use door knobs!”
Granted you don’t hold hands in public or make out on the KL Subway, but there are parts of London my husband and I don’t holds in. And heterosexual PDA’s are frowned on as well so you respect the culture of the country when you are there. We have vacationed in Malaysia 8 times and never had any issue. Just use common sense.
Suroth
We don’t know the full story here. I’ve been following it since it happened. As a commentator points out above it is strange that he admitted to being in the video. The senior minister has denied it and there is some talk that it was some sort of setup potentially even a faked video in which Aziz would have to have been involved in the set up. I would just be careful what you believe at this point. Remember that a false allegation of ‘sodomy’ was used to imprison the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for many years (until his party actually came to power last year and he was released).