HULU LANGAT, Jan 6 — Datuk Seri Azmin Ali sought to dispel speculation of a political conspiracy over recent chummy photographs of him with Umno aristocrat Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein in Morocco.
The economic affairs minister, who is also PKR deputy president, admitted to being friends with the former Umno vice-president, but insisted their relationship dates back decades and does not signal any tie-up between their two parties.
“I met many Malaysians in Morocco. That wasn’t an issue. Please don’t politicise this. My relationship with Hishammuddin began decades ago, there’s nothing new.
“Even when I was in the Opposition, when his eldest child was married, I was the only member of the Opposition in the hall of Shangri-La Hotel,” Azmin told reporters here after an affordable housing scheme programme.
He verified that the photographs of him and Hishammuddin in Morocco were taken recently, but added that their meeting there was coincidental.
Several photographs and even a video said to be taken by Azmin’s eldest son Ameer Azmin have been circulated on social media showing not just Azmin and Hishammuddin but their families posing for group pictures in the last week of December.
The caption “our families reunited” caught the attention of political speculators and set tongues wagging.
