In a statement, Yii said Wan Junaidi should not expect the public to buy the “excuse” he had given.

Wan Junaidi had earlier said the drop in the country’s CPI was due to the crackdown on corruption cases by the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), thus giving rise to public perception that corruption was rampant in the country.

Yii said that instead of acknowledging the core problem of increasing corruption level in the country , Wan Junaidi continued to “bury his head in the sand” even though he was the minister tasked with upholding the law.

“If nothing is done and they (the government) keep pretending the problem does not exist, our country will continue to be left behind.

“We have deteriorated as a country in comparison with many of our neighbours who have taken a hard stand on corruption.

“Instead, we seem to be embracing it and allowing it to grow in our society,” he said.

Earlier this week, Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index 2021 (CPI 2021) report in which Malaysia had dropped five places to 62.

This is the second year in which Malaysia has fallen in the rankings after dropping six rungs to 57 in 2020.