Above all, Hong Kong society must abide by the rule of law

When representatives of government, business or the professions pitch Hong Kong's virtues to the outside world, they almost invariably cite the rule of law above all else. That is probably the closest this diverse lot come to speaking with one voice. It also comes closest to reflecting community sentiment.

A reminder of that emerged in a poll conducted by Chinese University, in the fourth week of occupation of roads by democracy activists, that found that society's most important core value was not democracy, but the rule of law.

People understand or sense that unless respect for the rule of law prevails, we lose a vital safeguard for other democratic values we cherish as of right, such as freedom of speech and the press, of association and assembly, of procession and demonstration, and of privacy and movement, to name some.

In the Chinese University poll, about 23 per cent, or nearly one in four, of 804 people interviewed by telephone gave the rule of law top ranking, compared with just over 10 per cent, or one in 10, who chose democracy, which ranked fourth overall behind freedom (20.8 per cent) and a "just and corruption-free" society (15.3 per cent). That said, a breakdown of responses by age reflected a generational polarisation of society by Occupy Central. Among people under 30, the scores for democracy (23.4 per cent) and the rule of law (10.3 per cent) were almost exactly opposite to the overall scores. But among those 31 to 50 the score for the rule of law blew out to 28.7 per cent and that for democracy fell to 8.5 per cent.

The Bar Association, representing the city's barristers, therefore appears to empathise with majority community opinion when it says that protesters' defiance of a court injunction against occupation of sites in Mong Kok and Admiralty is an erosion of the rule of law and "going down a slippery slope to a state of lawlessness".

Implicit in the aforementioned cherished freedoms is respect for the rights of others. In violating them, the students and activists blocking roads may say they are inviting prosecution in a higher cause. But in defying court orders they are issuing a direct challenge to the ultimate safeguard of their rights - the rule of law. They should heed the underlying message of the poll that it is time to leave the streets and pursue their admirable ideals through legal avenues.