KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — The Terengganu crisis caused by the resignation of three lawmakers from Umno who then rejoined shortly after demonstrates why Malaysians have lost faith in Putrajaya's fight against corruption, the DAP said today.

Commenting on the short-lived debacle that briefly put the state in a constitutional crisis after the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) lost its majority in the Terengganu assembly, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said suspicions of impropriety were raised from the very start.

Lim noted that both electoral reforms group Bersih and former New Straits Times editor-in-chief Datuk A. Kadir Jasin had suggested underhanded tactics and dirty politics, with the latter predicting the issue could be resolved if the “price is right”.

“No one believes that the three Terengganu Umno assemblymen quit because of unhappiness over the former Terengganu mentri besar's daughter’s wedding, which the prime minister today even publicly promised that he would attend.

“It is such unprincipled Umno politicians that leads the public to consider that trustworthy politicians don't exist anymore,” Lim said today.

Transparency International-Malaysia revealed in its Malaysian Corruption Barometer 2014 yesterday that just 28 per cent of Malaysians believed the country’s effort to reduce corruption was effective.

This was worse compared to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2013 report that cited 31 per cent of Malaysian respondents believed the government was doing well in tackling graft.

Political parties also overtook the police as the group seen as most corrupt, with 45 per cent of respondents viewing the group as “corrupt”.

Lim today said DAP was not surprised by the swap that TI-M described as “unusual”, pointing out that Putrajaya continues to hold off institutional changes to establish integrity and structural changes to combat corruption.

“BN must be reminded that if they continue to trivialise the climate of fraud, bribery and corruption that is presently at a 'rather dangerous' trend, Malaysia will not be able to eliminate poverty and remain stuck in the middle-income trap,” Lim added.

Terengganu was plunged briefly into an administrative crisis when former Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said and two other state lawmakers quit Umno this week, leaving BN with just 14 seats against Pakatan Rakyat's 15 in the 32-seat assembly.

The resignations turned BN into a minority government and vulnerable to a vote of no-confidence that could have forced it from the administration.

But the trio retracted their resignation letters yesterday and have returned to the Umno fold after Ahmad and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak exchanged apologies over a “misunderstanding” over the wedding of the Terengganu lawmaker’s daughter.

Ahmad previously said his resignation from the party was due to the Umno president’s refusal to allow him to step down from office only after his daughter’s wedding reception this Saturday.