Lim, whose signature look is black attire, tweeted how he never understood the legendary rock star or why Bowie would paint his face and wear the clothes he did.

“But obviously he was very popular.”

This earned the ire of netizens who responded with attacks and insults of every kind imaginable.

Fatin Nadia responded by saying Bowie was popular because he made great music and that Lim’s tweet was incredibly disrespectful especially from a founder of a creative college.

Twitter user Yazid took the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology founder to task by tweeting: “Show some respect for a dead man please? Not many understand your dress-sense neither (sic).”

Others poked fun at Lim’s hair and said it was no wonder Limkokwing designs were boring, while Dr Colin Fu mocked Lim for his short stint as advisor to Prime Minister Najib Razak by tweeting: “Did you ever understand why your PM stole 2.6b? Obviously you did though he is not very popular, as reported.”

The tweet has since been retweeted 69 times.

Hours later, Lim tweeted: “Some people obviously have mistaken creativity to mean being outlandish or outright crazy or going against everything that’s in existence.”

Yesterday, Bowie, widely regarded as one of music’s biggest icons, passed away in London, after an 18-month battle with cancer.