My Take | Why most Hong Kong people are both blue and yellow in the current dispute

I thought for a brief moment that Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee was making more than a fashion statement when she donned both blue and yellow at the legislature.

How marvellous it would be for a lawmaker, deep in the ideological trenches over the Occupy protests, to emerge and call for reconciliation between the two camps. Alas, Ip is firmly a "blue" person and was wearing a yellow jacket over a blue dress only because it was chilly that day.

But most Hong Kong people, I believe, are both yellow and blue. Many support the grievances and aims of the student protesters but question the manner in which they are going about it. We want democracy but also the rule of law. We think mass rallies are legitimate means of political expression but blocking major roads and fighting with police are not acceptable.

We recognise the idealism and selflessness of the many student protesters, but are appalled by their dogmatism, over-simplification of deeply rooted problems, unrealistic political demands and sometimes borderline Red Guard tactics.

As a fellow member of a discussion group of mine puts it, many of us are outraged by "a corporatist state run by a plutocratic elite which lacks any real sense of empathy and engagement with the needs of ordinary Hongkongers".

However, as many of us who have lived in mature democracies and experienced their "mixed blessings" know, we can't assume full democracy, however defined, would necessarily ameliorate rather than exacerbate social conflicts and tensions created by our plutocratic capitalist system. The example of the US political system, with its dominance by powerful special interest groups, is enough to give us pause.