COMMENT Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah herself should read up the Federal Constitution and stop talking like an expert.

The constitution allows voters a choice and a right to or not to register as voters. Some voters may want to stay above political fray and be impartial.

Maria should know that and respect this freedom of choice granted to all. There must be a jurisprudential rationale for non-compulsion when this provision was drafted. Has Maria Abdullah tried to understand beyond this before shouting at others?

The constitution does not compel nor force citizens to register as voters for a reason or reasons. Furthermore, we are talking about "real politics" and the impact on our political landscape in the event that all were forced to vote.

I am worried and talking about the danger of compelling voters to vote as this may proportionately increase the numbers of voters who are politically less mature in relative to more mature and learned voters.

Are we going to force the nation to be decided by voters who are going to cast their votes based on racial, religious, cultural etc sentiments who may tilt the ballots?

Why force?

Can we deny the fact that in all nations (especially in Malaysia) there is still a big portion of our eligible voters who do not care or follow political developments and when forced to vote are more inclined to vote along racial, religious lines?

If these eligible voters do not vote, then we are relatively safe as there will be a bigger say by more mature and objective voters.

Maria should not pretend that all voters voted based on facts or political correctness or conscience. On the contrary, the reverse may hold true if we compel all to vote.

Is Maria going to cry foul, lament or complain about immaturity of voters later only if they do not cast in accordance to her sentiment and political inclination? Will she scream again if a large number of inactive voters turned out to vote against the party of her choice?

Maria may have claimed that she is a "clean" political activist but she's obviously seen to be bias and partisan.

She should do herself and the nation justice by entering active politics, rather than pretending to be otherwise.

Corruption fears

She should also make up her mind in politics or read up the constitution first before talking about politics and constitution through her nose by thumping down others.

She ought to practice some humility: understand real politics and comprehend the intentions and the spirit of the constitution before patronising others based on her prejudice or presumptions.

Moreover, she missed the gist of my statement which blasted the very notion of offering monetary rewards for voter registration that will lead to more political corruption.

Bersih should actively set up voter registration booths or hold briefings to educate Malaysians on why eligible adults should register as voters.

Instead, Maria is more interested to bring down a constitutionally elected government via street protests.

Maria should stop hiding hypocritically behind an NGO since she has actively and radically involved herself in partisan politics. She has descend from her original call for “free and fair elections” to now Bersih 5’s call for the ouster of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak .

This in itself has raised questions on her credibility and political impartiality.

TI LIAN KER is MCA central committee member and religious harmony bureau chairperson.