The DAP supremo said despite the fact the Hew can be extremely crude and vulgar, the last thing the latter would do is to be a communist or to promote such ideology.

Lim also said he did not agree with some of views and ideas put forward by Hew, whom he had known for over three decades.

He also described Hew, who is popularly known as “Superman Hew” for his penchant for wearing T-shirts featuring the superhero, as an “angry young man” who is both irreverent and unorthodox.

“I had not read his comic book when the controversy blew up, but Hew is neither a communist nor a communist sympathiser,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement.

Lim went on to state that he did not believe that the home ministry had acted rightly in levelling the charges that Hew’s comic book was promoting communism and sympathy for the communist struggle.

He then called on Putrajaya to review the ban on Hew’s book.

“The Pakatan Harapan government came to power on the promise to usher in an era of greater openness without undermining national security,” he said, adding that the ruling coalition had pledged to repeal oppressive laws like the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 prior to the May 9 polls.

Yesterday, Hew was summoned to the Bukit Aman police headquarters over the comic book, “Belt and Road Initiative for Win Winism”.

The book, which has since been banned, was published by the Asia Comics and Cultural Museum which Hew headed. It sparked outrage after news that thousands of copies had been distributed to school libraries as reference material.