PUTRAJAYA, June 7 — In his first monthly assembly as home minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin gave his ministry the lofty goal of lifting Malaysia up from among the world’s most corrupt nations now.

Addressing almost 300 high-ranking officers and workers assembled here, Muhyiddin commended them for preserving the country’s security, but noted room for improvement.

“I want to put us on a different path now. I thank you all for doing a good job in keeping this country at a respected level. But we must understand, the people who voted for a change now have higher expectations.

“They are well informed about the successes in other advanced countries. They are up to date through social media in their hands,” he said.

Muhyiddin said that with the corruption scandals Malaysia was facing, his aim was to improve Malaysia’s position on indices tracking corruption and the perception of graft.

“I want to place our country on par with other advanced countries. So we should take it to the next level now. Let’s not follow other countries, let’s be the leaders instead,” he said.

Muhyiddin went on to say that the previous Barisan Nasional government was generous with their own efforts to combat corruption.

“Everything, they easily gave an ‘A’. We are a safe country but I’m setting new expectations now… let’s make Malaysia the safest and strive towards being free of corruption,” he added.

He ended his speech by reminding the ministry’s staff that he will have an open door policy and was receptive to new ideas.

“I’ve worked in at least eight ministries before and I’ve always practised an open door policy... Even though my door is locked sometimes, just knock,” he said to laughter from attendees.