DAP parliamentarian Lim Lip Eng’s sarcasm was hard to ignore in relation to Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s decision to sign the Kelantan declaration in support of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Expressing thankfulness, Lim said it was fortunate that Ku Li, as he is commonly known, did not sign the Citizens’ Declaration earlier this month.

“It’ll be hard if he claims that signing the declaration is just like signing an attendance book, that it was just a political gimmick.

“Umno-owner media organisations like TV3, Utusan Malaysia and RTM would have ammunition to attack the Citizens’ Declaration everyday until the next general election," Lim said in a statement today.

Further hitting out at Ku Li, Lim questioned the Umno man’s standards with regard to political responsibility, to the extent that Ku Li was willing to sign a declaration and then regard it as a mere gimmick.

At a press conference yesterday, Ku Li said he had joked how signing the Kelantan declaration was like signing an attendance book .

He also stressed how the declaration was simply a normal document which had no legal effect and the signing of it was “gimmicky”, more than anything.

Meanwhile, on Ku Li’s denial that he had knowledge about a statutory declaration (SD) in support of him to replace Najib as prime minister, Lim wondered whether Ku Li will say that the SD was also a political gimmick.

“I'm not sure whether the PAS leadership will still want Ku Li ( photo ) to be a candidate for the prime minister’s post after this show of attitude," he said.

Ku Li, added Lim, could still ‘play around’ with gimmicks and declarations, even though the country is facing various crises to its leadership and economy.

“The people should play deaf and ignore his future statements. Ku Li is definitely fit to continue to be the prime minister-in-waiting and to continue hoping forever,” said Lim, without mincing his words.

Ku Li yesterday denied that he was responsible for circulating the SD backing him to be prime minister, stressing that he had no knowledge of it.

He later said he was aware of the document, but only after it was posted online by an MP.