He said the recent crackdown on corruption cases by enforcement agencies such as the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has led to perceptions that corruption is rampant in the country.

However, he is confident the CPI will go up as soon as people see the results of these cases, he told a press conference.

Earlier this week, Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) said Malaysia was placed at number 62 out of 100 countries in TI’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index 2021 (CPI 2021).

The anti-graft watchdog said Malaysia’s ranking is the “lowest since the methodology was revised in 2012″.

Last year, TI had ranked Malaysia at 57.

Following the release of the latest report, TI Malaysia president Muhammad Mohan said “the situation we are in is deeply worrying”.

Wan Junaidi however said “there are two sides of the story”, in explaining the drop in the country’s ranking.

“For example, in a situation where corruption happens but no one reports about it, there will be a ‘good perception’ among the public.

“But here, people might link certain things to corruption, even though these may not be so,” he added.

The minister also said the authorities will not be selective in taking action against wrongdoers.

Government committed to creating political funding law

To a question on whether the government had plans to enact a political funding law, Wan Junaidi said the bill on political funding was with the Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption Centre or GIACC.

However, he said his ministry had to first prioritise attention to other critical bills and laws.

“We are not delaying. It is just that we have a lot of things on our hands.

“The political funding bill is on our radar and one of the important laws we want to execute,” Wan Junaidi said.

When asked for an update on the proposed amendments to decriminalise suicide, he said health minister Khairy Jamaluddin had tabled the Cabinet paper on this.

“However, the Cabinet instructed him to take another look and present it later,” Wan Junaidi added.

The Dewan Rakyat was told on Oct 7, 2021 that the home ministry and Attorney-General’s Chambers had agreed to abolish Section 309 of the Penal Code that penalised those who attempted suicide.

Rights groups had called on the government to repeal Section 309, claiming that the provision was “inhumane” and people who attempted suicide actually needed help rather than being convicted.

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