This comes after Malaysia fell once again in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) rankings, sitting at 62nd in the world, having been ranked 57th in 2020 and 51st in 2019.

After the rankings were released on Tuesday, the MACC said it would continue to pay serious attention to combat corruption and devise recommendations to reverse the decline.

In a statement today, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu said the MACC “is the problem”, pointing to instances of political influence in the agency.

“Over the last two years, the MACC has consistently and persistently allowed itself to be used as a political weapon against opposition politicians with threats of investigations and prosecutions that will magically disappear when the opposition MPs defect and support the unelected prime minister,” they said.

“The MACC has failed to perform its statutory duty to act impartially, independently and professionally in a transparent manner without fear or favour.

“Worse, MACC itself is riddled with abuse of power and corrupt practices where the lawman becomes the outlaw.”

Lim and Mohamad gave 17 examples of the department’s failure to act, such as disregarding MACC chief Azam Baki’s share ownership, the Pandora Papers report on offshore accounts, and the recording allegedly of former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin talking about offering government and GLC posts to defectors.

“MACC must come clean and explain why there is still no action on these 17 cases,” they said.

“Failure to do their duty professionally and responsibly will only cause Malaysia’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranking to slip further down this year and cause a drop in investor confidence and Malaysia’s competitiveness.”