Despite the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) ramping up its anti-graft efforts with headlines of arrests for corruption splashing the newspapers, it still pales in comparison to neighbouring Indonesia.

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang described the anti-corruption efforts between both countries as a "day-and-night difference", warning that it was a matter of time that Malaysia would be internationally regarded as lagging behind Indonesia in terms of battling corruption.

An example of this divide, Lim said, could simply be found in the news headlines in both countries over the last month.

"For instance, one of the most electrifying news on the anti-corruption front in Malaysia was the headline last month: 'Eight officers face 28 fresh charges in customs bribery case'.

"But this paled into insignificance when compared with the following headline on the fight against corruption in Indonesia a week earlier: 'Ex-leader of Indonesia's ruling party gets eight years in jail for corruption, money laundering'," he said in a statement today.

Lim added Indonesia's newly-minted president Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo even dropped eight of his prospective ministerial candidates after the country's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) vetted them and found them to be "high risk" of being graft suspects.

"Can Prime Minister Najib Razak or even the MACC explain why Malaysia is losing out so badly to Indonesia in anti-corruption efforts and results, with not a single 'big fish' landed in Malaysia so far?" he said.

He added there had not been any 'big fish' conviction in Malaysia for the past 33 years whereas such convictions have become commonplace in Indonesia.

Lim said this was best illustrated in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) where Malaysia ranked 23 out of 41 countries with a score of 5.28 in 1995, but has fallen to 53 of 177 countries with a score of 50/100 by 2013 despite various trumpeting of reforms.

"In comparison, Indonesia was ranked at the very bottom at 41 in 1995 with CPI score of 1.94. Now Indonesia is ranked No. 114 with a progressive rise CPI score to 32/100 in 2013," he said.

Lim said while Indonesia has improved progressively, Malaysia is still struggling to maintain its CPI score and warned that Malaysia may fall behind Indonesia even before year 2020.

"Is there a strategy by Najib and MACC to avert this disaster?" he asked.