Putrajaya appears to be leaning towards China in many areas, but top of the agenda should be learning how China deals with graft, said DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.

"Najib cannot be unaware that China, under President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive, had punished more than one million officials for corruption over the past three years.

"Top officials, including ministers and other 'tiger' personalities, have been punished for corruption.

"In contrast, what has Najib's anti-corruption campaign got to show, as everybody is still waiting for a 'shark' in Malaysia to be charged in court," said Lim during a speech in Penang last night.

Unlike Xi's anti-corruption campaign, observed Lim, Najib had achieved quite the opposition.

Under Najib's helm, Malaysia now has a reputation as a "kleptocracy".

"I defined in Parliament on Monday that 'kleptocracy' is rule by thieves and robbers, and I stood uncontradicted and unchallenged in the Dewan Rakyat.

"(I told the Dewan Rakyat) that as a result of Malaysia's disgraceful epithet of a 'global kleptocracy', Malaysia is ruled by the PPP: 'Pencuri (thief), perompak (robber) dan penyamun (mugger)".

Slide in TI rankings

Lim noted that in 2015 and early 2016 alone, Malaysia's troubles with corruption was earned mention by reputable publications such as foreignpolicy.com, Time magazine and and The Economist.

Moreover, Malaysia's ranking on the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has taken a hit in 2015, placing Malaysia 54th out of 168, down four places from the previous year.

"The Najib government had been boasting about its target for Malaysia to be in the top 30 countries in the TI CPI by 2020, but this is nothing but a pipe-dream.

"Studying the TI CPI ranking and score for the 177 countries and the 21-year series of TI CPI from 1995-2015, there is no reason or ground for anyone to believe that the target of Malaysia being ranked in the top 30 of TI CPI in 2020 is a realistic or achievable one," said the veteran opposition lawmaker.

Lim warned that China and Indonesia are poised to overtake Malaysia in the TI CPI rankings unless something drastic is done.