DAP lawmaker Tony Pua called on the government to stop "crying wolf" over the weakening ringgit and face the loss of confidence in the currency, if its slump is to be halted.

Pua reminded Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani that this is the third consecutive year where the ringgit has become the worst performing currency in Asia.

"As the saying goes, once is an accident, twice a coincidence and three times a pattern.

"Hence the second finance minister sounds exactly like the boy who has cried wolf too many times.

"No Malaysian with any sense left believes or is assured by what he is saying," said Pua in a statement today.

"In fact, his open call 'not to panic' is likely to have had the opposite effect as it showed that the government is completely clueless and incapable of stemming the disastrous decline of the ringgit," he said.

"The second finance minister’s attempt to assure the Malaysian public has zero credibility and if that’s his only answer to the depreciated ringgit, then 2017 will only see further pains for our currency and economy."

Pua said the reason for the continuing decline of the ringgit is not the price of crude oil, but the loss of international confidence in Malaysia due to its international corruption scandal.

This, he said, is shown by how the ringgit has continued to fall despite a rise in crude oil prices this year.

Pua said for December 2016, brent crude has been trading 50 percent higher at around US$55 per barrel compared to a year earlier.

"Unless and until there exist ministers and a government in Malaysia who is willing to call a spade a spade, and is willing to take concrete actions to redeem ourselves from the kleptocratic bottom, Malaysia’s economy will only continue to struggle to stay afloat and its currency continuing to significantly under-perform relative to its peers."

Pua said the world already knows of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) forfeiture suits and the naming of a 'Malaysian Official 1' in its court documents.

"It appears that everyone knows the real cause of the ringgit’s terrible performance except our clueless or pretend-to-be-clueless ministers.

"The fundamental cause is because of the complete collapse in confidence in our currency and economy ever since we have been outed as a major global kleptocracy and the failure of the Malaysian authorities and government to take any action against those responsible," said Pua.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said with the key perpetrators behind the DOJ's allegations getting away "scot free" while those calling for action against those responsible have faced oppression and intimidation, "there can be little surprise that Malaysia has lost the confidence of both local and foreign businesses and investors".

Ringgit 'reeling' from perfect storm

On Tuesday, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported, "The beaten down Malaysian ringgit is showing no signs of catching a break in the tail end of 2016," noting a similarity in the region's currency markets with the 1998 financial crisis.

The Hong Kong daily said the ringgit has "reeled from a perfect storm of bearish factors including uncertainty about Donald Trump's impending presidency in the United States, the acceleration of US interest rate hikes and a long-running corruption scandal linked to Prime Minister Najib Razak".

The ringgit traded at 4.4798 to the US dollar on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, after falling to 4.4805 on Monday, its weakest point since January 1998. 

SCMP cited Singapore market players pointing to the 1MDB scandal as having left a serious dent in confidence in Malaysia.

Song Seng Wun, an economist with CIMB Private Bank in Singapore, was reported saying "political risks" were exacerbating the ringgit's slump.   

"(Apart from US factors,) the ringgit's problems also lie with the fact that the 1MDB scandal has not left the headlines despite a lot of rhetoric otherwise and this is agitating global investors," added Stephen Innes, a Singapore-based senior trader at foreign exchange firm Oanda.