KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang rejected claims that Pakatan Harapan (PH) has failed miserably since winning federal power.

The Iskandar Putri MP pointed out Malaysia’s international achievements announced under the PH administration, such as the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) for year 2018 and The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.

Malaysia rose to 12th place in 2020 from 15 this year in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index and is among the best improved economies in the WGI.

The WGI measures institutional quality across 214 countries by accounting for six dimensions which are accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and corruption.

Malaysia improved in five out of the six dimensions.

"Even more remarkable, Malaysia has jumped and improved from 25 to 16 in the Global Peace Index (GPI), the biggest jump among the top countries,” Lim said in a statement.

"Malaysia is also set to make the greatest improvement in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in the 25-year history of TI CPI since 1995,” said the 78-year-old.

Lim said Malaysia, which ranked 62nd out of 180 countries in the 2017 TI and CPI indexes, will jump significantly in both when they are released due to efforts of the current government.

He said these achievements would not be possible if not for the change in government last year.

"These are not puny achievements as Malaysia undertakes institutional reforms which will take years to see their final impact, whether in the restoration of the important principles of the rule of law and an independent judiciary or to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy to a leading nation of integrity in the world,” he added.

Lim’s statement comes on the back of rival’s claims while campaigning for the Tanjung Piai federal by-election.