KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 22): Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said the government should address the "ultimate cause" of the confidence crisis Malaysia is facing, following the Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani's comment that there is no need to panic about the weakening ringgit.

In a statement today, Pua said the minister's attempt to assure the Malaysian public has no credibility, adding that the country's currency and economy will continue to see challenges in 2017 if the weakening of the ringgit is not addressed.

"Perhaps Datuk Johari has forgotten that this is the first year we have hit bottom. In fact, even I myself was a little surprised to discover that this is not the second, but the third consecutive year where the ringgit has become the worst performing currency in Asia.

"In 2014, the ringgit slumped 6.3% from 3.281 on Jan 1 to 3.502 a dollar on Dec 31. Last year, the ringgit collapsed 18.5% from 3.505 on Jan 1 to 4.303 a dollar on Dec 31," he said.

He added that the repeated assurances by the government and the central bank that the ringgit was undervalued was unfounded as the currency fell further this year.

Meanwhile, blaming the ringgit's weak performance on the slump in global crude oil prices is no longer tenable, said Pua.

"The Brent Crude price per barrel has indeed declined from US$102.10 in January 2014 to US$60.70 (December 2014) to US$36.57 (December 2015). However, for the month of December 2016, the Brent Crude has been trading 50% higher at around US$55 per barrel compared to a year earlier.

"If the global oil price drop had been the reason why we were the worst performing currency in 2014 and 2015, there is certainly no reason why we should remain the worst performing currency in 2016 with the substantially higher oil prices," he said.

Pua further said the fundamental reason for the weakening of the ringgit is the confidence crisis Malaysia is facing "ever since [it has] been outed as a major global kleptocracy and the failure of the Malaysian authorities and government to take any action against those responsible”.

"Unless and until there exist ministers and a government in Malaysia who [are] willing to call a spade a spade, and [are] 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 underperform relative to its peers," said Pua.