We need to keep calm and move on, says Frederick Ma

Everyone should calm down for the good of Hong Kong because history has never gone according to script, a former government minister says.

Frederick Ma Si-hang said history would not abide with anyone's wishes or plans, just as no one could have known when the first bullet was shot in the assassination of the Austrian archduke in 1914 that it would lead to the first world war.

Ma was head of the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau from 2002 to 2008.

The key to avoiding conflict, he said, was effective communication to try to understand each party's position early on rather than only during a crisis.

"I believe different and critical opinions can coexist and they should be sorted out through exchange at an early stage. But now both parties have taken an extreme stand of their own," said the 62-year-old University of Hong Kong honorary professor.

He was referring to the Occupy Central protesters and those against the civil disobedience movement, who have clashed in recent days.

Ma said he sympathised with the passionate student protesters because he was one 40 years ago. "I took part in a campaign defending the Diaoyu Islands … in the 1970s," he recalled.