Malaysia’s government scrambled Wednesday to contain political fallout from the married health minister’s public admission that he and a friend were the couple seen in a secretly made sex video.

“I am the man in the tape,” Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said Tuesday, referring to DVDs that began circulating in his home state last week showing him performing sexual acts with an unidentified woman in a hotel room.

Speaking in Johor during a 12-minute news conference, Chua, 61, apologized to his wife, three children and supporters.

Chua, a former physician and one of Malaysia’s fastest rising political stars, said the woman in the tape was a “personal friend” but refused to elaborate.

“I would like to emphasize that I did not make the tape myself. Who has done this and why it was done is obvious. Who made this tape is not important any more,” he said, apparently suggesting it was made by his political rivals.

Chua said he had no intention of relinquishing his Cabinet post or his vice presidency in the Malaysian Chinese Association, the No. 2 party in the ruling National Front coalition. But he said he would leave the final decision to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

MCA President Ong Ka Ting called for an emergency party meeting Wednesday to discuss the scandal, which is already providing political ammunition for opposition groups that often raise allegations of government immorality and misconduct.

“A key politician has confessed to committing a dirty and disgusting act, but he still continues his work and his allies support him without guilt,” a youth wing division of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party said in a statement.

Ruling coalition officials in Johor insisted Tuesday they want Chua to defend his parliamentary seat in the next general elections, which most political pundits expect by mid-2008.

Chua “has shown his dedication in improving the quality of life of the people in his constituency,” MCA state official Tan Kok Hong told the New Straits Times newspaper.

In a statement Tuesday, Chua’s wife said she stood by her husband.