“Overwhelmingly, most people respect the rule of law. They respected the rule of law before the Occupy movement and they respect the rule of law after the Occupy movement. I do not believe that there was any contrary view that people thought somehow the rule of law was something not to be respected.”
Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li
SCMP, January 13
Spot on the money. He spoke the truth, no doubt about it. Water is wet, the Pope is Catholic and most people respect the rule of law. What depth of intellect.
The bigger question here, however, is what our chief justice might mean by rule of law. He seems to mean that people should obey the law and, moreover, that most people agree that people should obey the law.
This is all very well but it is not really what we mean when we speak of rule of law. What we actually mean is that government is bound by the law as much as the lowliest citizen is. If government is in conflict with the law then government must submit to the law. Rule of law comes before rule of government or any other rule at all.