Umno has sometimes failed to handle public perception properly, Federal Territories Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Muhammad Rafii admitted today.

"Umno sometimes has been not so smart in handling perception.

"When you can't handle perception properly, even good things can be made to look negative," Mohd Razlan told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

He cited the example of the troubled state fund 1MDB which has been under intense scrutiny by both the public and the authorities.

He said despite 1MDB chief Arul Kanda Kandasamy explaining that 1MDB's problems stemmed from a cash flow mismatch that was the result of a failed initial public offering (IPO), the image of the state-owned fund remained murky.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has already raided the 1MDB office three times, Mohd Razlan said, and have found nothing of a criminal nature.

"This means that 1MDB has not committed any crime," he said.

Bad public perception has only contributed to the problems of 1MDB, he added.

"We have a good formula but because sometimes we were not so smart about handling perception, it became bad," he said.