In a statement issued today, he said, “The occupants of Putrajaya should be changed, peacefully and democratically, as has happened in the United Kingdom. There’s peaceful and democratic transition of power in that country, to cite an example.

“It has also become the norm in the Philippines and Indonesia which have matured as democracies.”

The DAP veteran, in looking back on the campaigning so far, conceded that there were high points as well despite the many low points. “The high points in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-election campaigns restored my confidence in the future of Malaysia, my faith in ordinary Malaysians and their ability to distinguish right from wrong, good and bad, despite the intense and saturated propaganda offensive by the Umno/Barisan Nasional (BN) machinery.”

Lim however was more concerned with the “low points”, and even “low farce” in the two by-election campaigns.

He trotted out a sampling:

• The “Cash is King” mentality breeding money politics and where public funds were being flung around indiscriminately to buy votes.
• The “infantile and idiotic antics” where a humorous speech about an Amanah nuclear physicist, if elected, “hurling an atomic bomb” at Najib in Parliament was taken literally as a threat to the Prime Minister. “Even school children will know that this was a figure of speech for exposing Najib’s wrongdoing,” said Lim.

Then, there were the “low-class tactics” of destroying or defacing Amanah/Pakatan Harapan (PH) banners and billboards.

PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang, not to be outdone, threatened divine retribution and damnation in the next world if Muslim voters did not choose PAS candidates, lamented Lim. “This is a clear violation of Section 9(1) of the Election Offences Act concerning ‘undue influence’, which makes it an offence for any person to make threats including ‘temporal or spiritual injury, damage, harm or loss’ to influence voters.”

The DAP leader went on about the Najib-Hadi “conspiracy” on May 26 to fast-track the latter’s hudud Bill in Parliament to edge out the RM55 billion 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal and the RM4.2 billion “donation” controversy as issues in the by-elections.

Also, he could not understand the “low standards” of some Umno Ministers like Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Minister for Rural and Regional Development, who bragged that he could write a book about him (Lim) being anti-Malay and anti-Islam. “When challenged, he could not cite a single instance from my 50 years in politics.”