KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 — PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has refused to comment on Perikatan Nasional (PN) information chief Datuk Seri Azmin Ali confirming that it was his voice in last week’s leaked phone conversation with Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Instead, Anwar quipped that Azmin is an expert on audio and video leaks.
“It’s OK, that is his (Azmin) view. He is an expert on audio and video (leaks),” he told a press conference in Seremban, Negri Sembilan today.
Yesterday, Azmin said that he recognised Anwar’s voice because he worked alongside the latter for decades, calling the audio recording the “biggest act of betrayal” of PKR and Pakatan Harapan (PH) by Anwar.
He is the second former PKR leader after Ampang MP Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin to say they are confident Anwar is one of the two voices caught on the audio clip.
A four-minute audio clip was uploaded on Facebook last week, purporting to be a conversation between Opposition Leader Anwar and his Umno foe Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, sent ripples through Malaysia’s political circles.
In the phone conversation, one man, with a voice resembling Anwar’s, praised the other for the political speech delivered at Umno’s 75th annual general assembly last month.
Zahid has rejected the recording as fake and an attempt to weaken and destroy Umno.
Anwar’s reaction has been similar. He called it slanderous and the latest ploy by “some elements in the government leadership” to damage inter-party ties within the Opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition ahead of GE15.
However, on Saturday, Anwar also downplayed the audio leak, saying there was nothing illegal about the conversation if “genuine”.
