Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah said today the electoral reform movement respects the right of the people to express dissent.

When enraged, she said, people exhibit their anger in different ways.

"It is not about keeping silent. People do all sorts of things, but it is not harmful.

"It does not bring physical violence to anybody. For me it is not about remaining silent, it is about allowing the space for people to express their anger.

"That is more important rather than criminalising it," Maria told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

Maria was responding to Rizal Mansor (photo), the aide to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor, who accused her of remaining silent when Bersih protesters created mock graves and carried out a traditional Chinese burial for the prime minister and his wife.

Though supporting Maria's decision to file a police report over a death threat she received, Rizal however asked if the Bersih chairperson practised double standards.

Don't equate threats with dissent

Meanwhile, Bersih deputy chairperson Shahrul Aman Mohd Sabri pointed out that expressions of dissent at the rallies never escalated to physical violence.

"That is very different than threatening lives or physically abusing the people's right to talk," Shahrul Aman added at the same press conference.

Similarly, Bersih Southern Peninsular vice-chairperson Thomas Fann said the incidents during previous Bersih rallies cannot be compared to the death threat against Maria.

"There is a huge contrast with what they did to Maria and her family. You cannot even compare it," Fann added.

Maria received the death threat via her mobile phone, which included a doctored image of a man dressed in black and sporting a balaclava holding her at knife-point.

The message, which threatened her with decapitation, stated that it was a warning from Malaysian Islamic State operatives.

Maria also claimed that the sender possessed photographs of the MyKads of her three sons.

The Bersih chairperson earlier received the Gwangju Human Rights Prize award from Korean NGO May 18 Memorial Foundation, in honour of Bersih's efforts to push for electoral reforms.