Lim said there appeared to be a great fear of the DAP, following press speculation that Adenan might ban DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng, PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Kit Siang himself.

He pointed out that “there is already a long list of DAP and PKR members of Parliament banned from entering Sarawak, including DAP’s Teresa Kok, Tony Pua, Teo Nie Ching, PKR’s Nurul Izzah, Chua Tian Chang and Rafizi Ramli, Parti Amanah’s Mohamad Sabu, and even the DAP mascot designer Ooi Leng Hah.

“All these abuses of power stem from one fear, the fear of losing power,” Lim said and challenged Adenan to live up to his billing as a democrat.

“How can one claim to be a democrat when one is afraid of losing power and is prepared to resort to all sorts of undemocratic and illegal means to remain in power at all costs?”

However, Lim said Adenan did not need to fear losing power, predicting that the chief minister would be returned, with only the question of whether he would obtain a two-third majority in the state assembly.

“If we believe in democratic politics, we must not be afraid to lose,” he said. “Unless we use democracy to hide authoritarian tendencies, we must not abuse powers just to stay in power.”

He accused Adenan of abusing his powers over immigration and pointed out that the DAP had been long-time supporters of Sarawak autonomy.