DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has taken a swipe at controversial preacher Zakir Naik and fugitive businessperson Jho Low.

Lim said he will not be a fugitive from justice unlike them and had proven himself when he returned to Kuala Lumpur just after the May 13, 1969 riots despite being warned against it.

"I had returned to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore as I felt that my place was with the people who had just elected me as MP (for Bandar Melaka) and that my duty demanded that I return home to be with the people inside the country.

"(Duty demanded I return) instead of being an international fugitive from justice and that even if I was to be detained under the ISA, I must be man enough to face the consequences.

"I would never be a Jho Low or even Zakir Naik,"  Lim said in a statement today.

Lim was in Sabah when the May 13 riots broke out, and subsequently left for Singapore as Subang Airport was closed at the time.

Low is wanted in Malaysia in connection with the 1MDB scandal while Zakir is wanted in India over money-laundering charges which the preacher claims are false.

On Thursday, Lim voiced support for an open letter by corporate trainer Anas Zubedy which called on Zakir to voluntarily leave the country.

Following this, Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari said it was the DAP veteran who should leave instead of the preacher.

Kelantan PAS secretary Che Abdullah Mat Nawi then invited Lim to visit the state, all expenses paid, and debate issues with Zakir if he really believed that the cleric was a criminal.

Lim said this invitation was "most strange and extraordinary".