The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the government should be prepared to support Transparency International (TI) in its global fight against "grand corruption", DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said.

"Malaysians and the world are asking why China is catching 'tigers' and Indonesia 'crocodiles', but Malaysia is not able to catch a single 'shark' in the war against grand corruption.

"TI has described grand corruption as 'one of the great unresolved legal challenges of our day'.

"Are MACC and the Malaysian government prepared to support TI in this global fight against grand corruption and has MACC a special strategy to fight grand corruption in Malaysia?" Lim asked in a statement issued today.

He said in Indonesia, it is now common that high-profile 'crocodile' anti-corruption cases involving former ministers and top officials end in their imprisonment.

In China, meanwhile, a million of the party's 90 million members have been sanctioned for corruption-related offences since Xi Jinping took power as president, he said.

This included many officials of high status, he said, which showed that high status within the party was no protection against investigation and conviction.

However, in Malaysia, a 'shark' has yet to be caught in the anti-corruption campaign, he said.

Instead, it is anti-corruption leaders like DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, PKR's Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli, Bersih leaders Ambiga Sreenevasan and Maria Chin Abdullah, along with student leaders who are persecuted and penalised, he said.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Razali Ibrahim had announced in the Senate yesterday that MACC had seized and frozen assets worth RM157.3 million this year, compared with last year's RM9.3 million.

While this may seem impressive, Lim said it seemed probable that the entire amount of RM157.3 million this year came from the Sabah state water department corruption case alone.

"If so, it is a mere drop in the ocean if MACC has the freedom to go after the 'sharks' in the corruption waters in Malaysia," he said.