Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been urged to intervene in the suspension of news weekly The Heat - or see Malaysia's Press Freedom Index (PFI) ranking plunge to a level worse than that of Myanmar.

DAP national adviser Lim Kit Siang pointed out in a statement today that while Malaysia had dived to  l 23  to its worst ranking in recent years, at 122, Myanmar had improved by 18 spots to take the 151th place in the 2011/2012 PFI ranking by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

"Najib should intervene immediately to restore the publication licence of The Heat before this incident becomes the tipping point to plunge Malaysia's 2014 Press Freedom Index to the lowest point in the nation's history, even below that of Myanmar," Lim said.

Malaysia's poor performance in the last ranking was attributed to the crackdown on the Bersih 3.0 rally, during which several journalists and photographers were assaulted.

World's best democracy?

Furthermore, Lim said, Najib should honour his promise of making Malaysia "the best democracy in the world".

"Nobody whether in Malaysia or outside really believes Najib will transform Malaysia into the 'best democracy in the world' but the least they expect Najib to do is not to backslide on his specific promise of democratic reforms.

"The suspension of the weekly, The Heat , is one such unacceptable instance of Najib reneging on his specific promise of democratic reforms to unshackle the press from authoritarian restrictions of the Mahathirism past," said Lim.

On Dec 13, it was reported that the news weekly had received a show cause letter and was subsequently suspended on Dec 19.

The suspension follows weekly's front-page article titled ‘All eyes on big spending PM Najib’ but the Home Ministry denied that this was the cause of the suspension.

Instead, the ministry attributed the suspension to alleged violation of the newspapers' publishing permit provisions.