PETALING JAYA, March 26 — The Malaysian chapter of Transparency International (TI-M) stood by the objectivity of its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) today, urging Putrajaya to address corruption seriously instead.

Its secretary-general Muhammad Mohan said the recent resolution passed by TI-M at its 20th annual general meeting had noted with grave concern Malaysia’s continued fall in the index.

"TI-M is deeply perturbed the powers that be are still in denial with the widespread corruption in the country and despite all our protests, have avoided addressing the crux of corruption,” he said in a statement.

"We unequivocally support the index as well as TI-M's executive committee headed by its president in pointing out possible corruption causes. We urgently call upon the government to directly address the many issues instead of rationalising them away such as forming its own index.”

The CPI, which was released on February 22, saw Malaysia fall to 62nd place last year compared to its 2016 ranking of 55th place.

Subsequently Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad said it would create Malaysia’s own, more effective special corruption index to analyse and measure the level of corruption in the country.