New | Benny Tai says Occupy Central has not undermined Hong Kong’s rule of law
One of the key organisers of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy street protests has rejected suggestions that the civil disobedience movement is undermining the city’s rule of law, saying critics have misunderstood both the nature of law and disobedience as protest.
One of the key organisers of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy street protests has rejected criticism that the civil disobedience movement is undermining the city’s rule of law, saying those critics have misunderstood both the nature of law and disobedience as protest.
Benny Tai Yiu-ting, co-founder of Occupy Central, said protesters should be prepared to bear all legal liability for their actions and argued that the street blockades had a “limited” impact on general law-abidingness.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying told President Xi Jinping over the weekend that the protests had seriously disrupted the city’s social order and had shaken its rule of law.
Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, said that many of those taking to the streets felt equal political rights were not safeguarded by Hong Kong law.
“If law cannot resolve the factors that lead to civil disobedience… [then] civil disobedience is necessary to provide the opportunity to change the content of the law,” Tai wrote in Ming Pao.
“Civil disobedience can occur only under certain circumstances after meeting certain conditions,” he wrote. “Just because civil disobedience participants defy a court order doesn’t mean they would do the same in other situations.”
He added: “But of course, reasoning for civil disobedience does not change its unlawful nature, and this is what a real civil disobedience protester acknowledges and accepts.”
Meanwhile, bailiffs enforcing court injunctions could begin to clear makeshift barricades at the protest camps on Friday, according to a lawyer representing a taxi drivers group.
The injunctions were first granted on October 20 to Chiu Luen Public Light Bus, the Taxi Association, the Taxi Drivers and Operators Association and Goldon Investment – the owner of Citic Tower – and cover sections of Nathan Road in Mong Kok and the entrances and exits of Citic Tower in Admiralty, opposite government headquarters.
On Monday the High Court ruled that bailiffs could get help from police as they cleared the areas, and authorised police to make arrests if protesters resisted.
Phyllis Kwong Ka-yin, representing the taxi drivers’ group, said the High Court is now deciding on the details of how to execute the injunctions and it would take days to complete the process.
Kwong said that even if the injunctions were sealed on Thursday, newspaper advertisements would have to be published on Friday. Only then, or even Saturday, could bailiffs begin to execute the injunction orders.
She urged anti-Occupy groups not to get involved in any clearances as they could face civil or criminal liability.
On Wednesday morning, 40 pro-establishment lawmakers issued a statement criticising those who ignore the injunctions.
“We feel that a few people with legal background have deliberately distorted the concept of the rule of law and misled the public,” Tam Yiu-chung, chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said.
