Malaysia will become an international laughing-stock if its anti-corruption campaign is reduced to a public relations (PR) problem, said Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang today.

He was responding to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz who said the government had done a lot to fight corruption but such information was not properly channeled to the public.

"If Nazri is right, then the only problem with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's anti-corruption campaign is one of PR rather than one of lack of political will.

"But he would belong to a very tiny number of people who would resort to such a novel way to wish away the grave problem of corruption in the country," said the opposition leader in a statement.

He also asked if Malaysia's plunge of seven places from 39 to 44 in the last three years during the Abdullah premiership in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) can be attributed to poor PR as well?

Official view?

Is Nazri's novel explanation the official position of the cabinet, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the Institute of Integrity Malaysia (IIM) or is it just his personal view? he asked further.

"If it is the official view of the prime minister, the cabinet and the various anti-corruption bodies, then there is nothing more that needs to be done than to engage an expensive PR firm to burnish Malaysia's image on integrity and anti-corruption," he said.

On Monday, Nazri said the ACA had stepped up efforts to investigate graft allegations, asking civil servants who appeared to be living beyond their means to furnish explanations.

Anonymous tip-offs were being taken seriously and a recent case involving a local council official who built a house disproportionately larger than other houses in the vicinity was under investigation, he added.

"Under the prime minister, the ACA is given a free hand to look into all allegations of corruption," he said.

When Abdullah took over the reins in 2003, he had vowed to come down hard on corruption. But four years on, critics have criticised him for not living up to this promise.