Malaysian Minister for Economic Affairs Mohamed Azmin Ali recently visited Morocco on holiday with his family.

While there, the Deputy President of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) bumped into none other than former Defence Minister and UMNO member, Hishammuddin Hussein.

Hishammuddin also happens to be the cousin of former Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak.

The two political party foes took a photo together, which was apparently uploaded to Twitter by Azmin's son.

The original tweet has since been taken down.

Azmin, Hisham 'bersatu semula' di Maghribi - Nasional - https://t.co/iKY5dD4xCb
PETALING JAYA: Foto keluarga keluarga Datuk Seri Azmin Ali dan Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein bercuti di Maghribi terikat kepada peminat spekulasi... https://t.co/iKY5dD4xCb

— eBisss (@eBISness) January 5, 2019

Now there's nothing to say that two politicians can't take a photo together, even if they're on opposing sides.

But Azmin's future ambitions have come under intense scrutiny in recent times.

Rising star

A Jan. 2 article by the Financial Times named him the leader of an "anti-Anwar Ibrahim" faction within the PKR.

Anwar is the current President of PKR, and is widely-tipped to be the next Prime Minister once Mahathir Mohamad steps down.

Anwar said in the FT interview that there were people within the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition that would like to "sabotage" his path to the post of Malaysia's Prime Minister.

However, on Jan. 4 he downplayed his remarks, saying that it was a "democratic" process and people were free to voice their disagreements.

On Jan. 6, Azmin tried to downplay the photo too.

According to the New Straits Times, he told reporters that he had merely bumped into Hishammuddin while on holiday, and the two did not plan a mutual trip.

Azmin said, "We need to be civilised. Don't assume then when they (political opponents) meet, there has to be a political discussion. We have to be nice with everyone for the sake of our nation."

Azmin is also familiar to many Singaporeans as he was the Minister who negotiated with Singapore regarding the deferment of the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High Speed Rail project.

Reading the tea leaves

This did not stop the speculation, however.

Another UMNO member and former Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, responded to the controversy with a couple of Tweets of his own.

The first had a laughing emoji, while he said in the second that Azmin's excuse reminded him of a certain video.

The video he shared was of a Kenyan politician who was asked to apologise for hitting another politician.

While he did apologise, he said that instead of hitting the other person, his cheeks moved towards his hand.

Azmin’s excuse reminds me of this. https://t.co/IDGjbL4P8t

— Khairy Jamaluddin 🇲🇾🌺 (@Khairykj) January 6, 2019

But one cannot help and notice the irony of the remarks of an UMNO leader who had recently met up with not one but two PKR leaders.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrMCBLGlf1r/

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Top image adapted from Azmin Ali and Hishammuddin Hussein's Facebook pages.