Professor putting a price on protest

Most mainstream economic theories share a common assumption on human nature - that we are rational actors who narrowly pursue our own self-interests. For Professor Francis Lui Ting-ming, an economist on the front line of opposition to next summer's planned Occupy Central pro-democracy campaign, it is this train of thought that guides his views on the movement as well as economics.

Lui, head of the economics department at the University of Science and Technology, is the mastermind behind Silent Majority for Hong Kong - a group seeking to counter the Occupy movement, which aims to blockade the business district next year if the government doesn't offer a satisfactory plan for universal suffrage in the 2017 chief executive election.

"I have zero interest in politics but [Occupy] goes against the ethos of economics - private ownership," Lui says. "Occupying Central would incur a huge cost for sure. A prudent estimate is HK$1.6 billion. I have formulated this from different perspectives, but there are many uncertainties pending the outcome."

Lui says that despite claiming to be the saviours of those seeking democracy in Hong Kong, the organisers of Occupy Central are in fact simply acting out of their narrow self-interests.

The academic says his figure for losses that would be incurred by the city from the movement comprised a long list of items including forgone rent, labour costs, and long-term impact on tourism, and was "based on the experiences of the political uprisings in Thailand and Egypt".

"But the actual amount of monetary loss is not important. I hate people who think they are saviours but are really just imposing their view on others."

Lui believes those "others" are the so-called silent majority that his movement seeks to represent.