DAP parliamentarians have urged Prime Minister Najib Razak to sue Newsweek for defamation on account of the US edition of the magazine's opinion column that described the Malaysian leader as a “crook.”

“This is an offensive term which makes its application to a sitting prime minister impugnable,” DAP Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran told Malaysiakini.

“Prime Minister Najib has no choice but to sue as not doing so would prompt the conclusion he is not willing to defend his reputation against slurs as brazen as this one,” added the DAP national vice-chair and Pakatan Harapan vice-president.