Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek today openly admitted that he was the person featured in a video depicting a man having sex with a woman purportedly in a hotel room.

Chua, 60, who is also MCA vice-president, made the confession at a press conference this afternoon in his parliamentary constituency of Labis in Johor.

However, he said that he will not resign as health minister but will instead let Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi decide on his fate.

"I serve at the pleasure of the prime minister," he said. "I will not allow (other) people to jeopardise or obstruct my duties."

An apparently calm and composed Chua vowed that he would continue his ministerial and party duties as normal.

The senior MCA leader, who is married with three children, also said that the 30-something woman featured in the video clip was a "personal friend".

“I am the man in the tape. The girl is a personal friend,” Chua said from a prepared statement at the Labis MCA headquarters at 4pm, accompanied by a group of 50 party supporters and local leaders.

The veteran politician emphasised that he did not make the tape himself.

“Who have done this is not important. What is most important is that my family, wife and children have accepted my apology,” he told the packed press conference.

Chua revealed that he had met with Abdullah yesterday as well as Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and MCA president Ong Ka Ting to “personally apologised to them”.

When asked what was the outcome of his meeting with Abdullah, Chua declined to answer and instead told the reporters to ask the prime minister.

According to Chua, he got a copy of the video from a friend on Sunday and he had watched the clip.

He said the reason for the person who made the video clip without his knowledge was "very obvious", hinting that he was a victim of a political conspiracy within the party.

He also said he was considering making a police report on the matter but added that the police had already started investigating the video.

Chua also refused to divulge the identity of woman in the video when pressed by journalists.

“I appeal to the press to give me and my family some space during this difficult time.”

Wife backs Chua

Over the past three days, the Chinese dailies have reported that DVDs - allegedly showing the politician in various sexual antics with a woman - were first distributed free in Muar and later, Batu Pahat and Seremban.

The scandal first broke on Saturday when copies of the DVD were anonymously placed in various streets in Muar town for people to collect. Some copies were even distributed by unknown individuals to a number of shops in the area.

Meanwhile, Chua’s wife Wong Sek Hin also released a press statement today supporting his embattled husband in the wake of the sex video scandal.

Wong, who was not present at today's press conference, said Chua had apologised to her and the family for his sexual indiscretion.

“It is a difficult time for all of us but we have accepted his regret and apology,” she added.

“He has been a good husband, father and family man who have never shirked his responsibilities.

“We know that it will be difficult during this time but we will go through this together as a family and will support him,” said Wong in the brief four-sentence statement sent to Malaysiakini.

Two video clips

According to those who have watched the tape, there were two separate DVDs depicting the alleged sex act purportedly recorded using closed circuit television (CCTV).

The first DVD lasting 56 minutes showed the entire sexual act from four different camera angles showing the bed, main door and living room.

Labelled as ‘(name of politician deleted) rapes and threatens woman’, a man can be seen walking into a room believed to be in a hotel and engages in sex with apparently a woman in her 30s.

Meanwhile, the second disc lasting 44 minutes was labelled ‘(name of politician deleted) sex video’ and featured the same sex act from a sole stationary camera that zoomed into the bed.

The couple can be seen in the video speaking in the Hokkien dialect.

The video clip begins with the politician in the room taking a shower and changing clothes. A woman later knocks on the door and is seen entering the room. The couple appears to know each other.

The video then shows the woman taking out a laptop and placed it on the bed, and then going into the bathroom and emerging later naked.

The woman then performs oral sex on the politician and this is followed by sexual intercourse on bed. The couple appears to be watching something, perhaps pornography, on the laptop during their sexual act.

Long political career

Chua, (photo, right) a trained psychologist, began his medical career as a government doctor in 1974 before moving into private practice two years later.

The senior politician, who hailed from Johor, was first elected state assemblyman for Penggaram in his home state in 1986. He held Penggaram for 18 years – winning the state seat in four consecutive general elections.

Chua was a Johor executive councilor - in charge of various profolios - for 14 years from 1990 to 2004.

He moved to federal-level politics in the 2004 general elections when he was picked to run for Labis, a parliamentary constituency near Segamat which was vacated by outgoing MCA chief Dr Ling Liong Sik.

Soon after the general elections, he was also picked by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as health minister, a much-coveted cabinet post.

From there, Chua moved up the party hierarchy at lighting speed – he bagged the second highest number of votes to become one of the four vice-presidents in the 2005 MCA polls.

In an immediate response, DAP leader Lim Guan Eng said several members of coalition parties had been involved in similar sex scandals since Abdullah came to power in 2003 - but never one so high-ranking.

"At this juncture, we want to see what Abdullah does in this situation," he told AFP.

"We need to examine whether Chua's role in this sex scandal has in any way compromised his performance as a cabinet minister," he added.

"Most have been only parliamentary members and senators who were not directly involved in the government. Chua is the most senior politician to be involved in such a scandal," he said.