In the spirit of Thaipusam, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has called for what he dubs "three noes", to bring about a new political culture of honest, moral and ethical politics in Malaysia.

The "three noes" he said, are no politics of fear, no politics of hate and no politics of lies.

He has challenged the BN leadership to accept these principles for the sake of a multiracial and multi-religious Malaysia.

"Let us see whether Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC and all BN party leaders dare to respond to this challenge or whether they will just dig deeper to hide their heads in the sand!" Lim said in a statement today.

The Gelang Patah MP claimed there was an upsurge of negative politics recently, which he speculated was because 2017 is an election year.

He cited Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor's wish to turn Penang into a federal territory as an example.

This he said, sought to spook Penangites into thinking that they would lose their right to have a state assembly if they exercised their right to vote.

He added the proposal also played up animosity between Malays and non-Malays, and was also based on "lies" that the DAP-led state government was anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

Tengku Adnan had said he would like to see Penang, Malacca and Langkawi, Kedah becoming federal territories.

On Penang, the Umno minister said this was because Malays and other races were marginalised.

He also said becoming a federal territory could help the state with affordable housing.

Lim claimed such remarks were fueled by Umno's fears that they lose even more political presence in Penang.

"This is why Umno leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers are escalating their triple politics of fear, politics of hatred and politics of lies against DAP," he said.