Nonetheless, former law lecturer Aziz, a native of Sabak Bernam, Selangor, said that a lot of messages have failed to reach the grassroots, who can be easily misdirected.

"I consider myself an accidental and amateur politician. Years before I joined politics, I was contemplating how to put a bridge between constitutional law and the people.

"When I came back from my post-graduate studies in the UK (University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham) in the late 1990s, I saw that people were too scared to talk about the monarchy, Islam, ISA and other important topics that were important.

"The moment you come up with comments, somebody makes a police report.

"The main problem is that people don't understand why these topics even became taboo. It was very much a case of the letter of the law being removed from the man in the street.

"Those days, it was a luxury. Now there is a huge pool of experts around," he joked.

“Actually there must have been some semblance of academic freedom, otherwise I wouldn’t have been promoted to full professor in 2003 and allowed to maintain a column in The Sun.”

Eventful spell with PKR

Aziz's outspoken views landed him in trouble when he made comments about the sultan of Selangor following a controversial action by Muslim religious authorities against a Methodist church for proselytisation.

"In 2010, I became persona non grata and was not even allowed to enter my own office at the Universiti Islam Antarabangsa. I think a group aligned to Umno alleged there was work to Christianise Muslims, but we found no such thing. I said it was not right, and there were police reports lodged against me, a bullet sent to my house," he recalled.

"For quite some years before, I had been facing this dilemma because I was among the few academics who were willing to come forward with my views. Eventually, I took the plunge," said Aziz.

“Actually Anwar asked me to be a PKR candidate as far back as 2007, and Ronnie Liu asked me to join DAP in 2009, but I declined both at the time.

“It was only after I had to leave the university, I entered the ring reluctantly,” he said.

In the 2013 general election, he contested as PKR's candidate for the Sabak Bernam parliamentary seat and lost to Umno's Mohd Fasiah Fakeh by a narrow margin of 1,644 votes.

"For a first outing, it was not so bad. But I saw a problem within the party. I think I lost partly because of a mini-sabotage internally.

"The party elections that followed the 2013 elections were very messy and costly. Eventually, I was kicked out, and I realised that it was due to the cartel aligned to Azmin," he claimed.

Aziz says that at the time, there was even the suggestion that he move towards joining Amanah.

"At the same time that I was forced to leave PKR, there was conflict within PAS and the purge of its progressive wing by Hadi’s followers. Then they left to form Amanah, but somehow I wasn't invited.

“You know I accept the political party system as a vehicle of change, but I’m not good at it.

"However, around August 2017, not far from the GE, I was brought in through (Damansara MP) Tony Pua. I was in Selangor at the time.

"Then DAP nominated me as an MPAJ councillor, but it was rejected. I heard that the suggestion I would be nominated to the Dewan Negara was also shot down. But in early 2018, Nga Kor Ming called me up to come to Ipoh. And move from Selangor to Perak," he said.

The gamble paid off with Aziz winning the Tebing Tinggi state seat comfortably by 3,927 votes against BN's Khoo Boon Chuan as part of the historic GE14 which saw Umno/BN lose federal power for the first time.

Aziz was given the education, environment, green technology and information portfolio in the Harapan state government led by Faizal. However, that same individual triggered the collapse of the administration.

DAP slowly changing

While there have been disappointments, Aziz believes that leaders and the people need to keep plugging away despite them.

Asked about the odd position of being in a party that is ostensibly multi-racial but presents a leadership that looks as if it represents minority rights, he said he wished more Malays would join DAP.

"It's difficult to deny that DAP has one Malay MP out of 42, or that the central committee is also dominated by one race. This is the reality.

“DAP is a political party, and it has stuck to its power base. It can't be too idealistic, or it will lose its footing.

"The party has evolved this way because of the need to champion certain issues which are of no interest to other parties, especially the Malay parties. DAP is making some adjustments, but it's still happening slowly.

"While I joined the party by coincidence, I consider myself part of the team. Despite what some say, I think it plays a viable role in politics, and more Malays should join," he said.