tv Inside Story Al Jazeera October 18, 2020 8:30pm-9:01pm +03
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failure to hold elections before means this term officially ends could leave haiti without a leader or parliament set up. this is these are the top stories and gideon's a very tense election that follows months of unrest incumbent president alpha condé is bidding for a controversial 30 which is main rival. so it's unconstitutional it was hacked has been following the election from neighboring senegal this by the violence despite the divisive politics of people came out and numbers to come out and vote cure up hours before the polls open at 8 o'clock people coming up at 6 o'clock in the morning to get a chance to have a say in this very important elections for getting and we spoke to some of the voters that came out to vote say that they want reconciliation there is talk about
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peace but many young people and the majority of the voters in this election are 1st time voters talk about jobs i mean they are not about john are accusing each other a violates your 2nd ceasefire more than 700 people on both sides have been killed during nearly 3 weeks of fighting over the disputed nicole occur about creech felons or people in chile marking one year since the beginning of a protest we are calling for social change demonstrators in the capital santiago by demanding a new constitution and a more equal society chile has been gripped by protests against high living costs inequality and exclusion at least 31 people have died and around 30000 detained in the past year thousands of protesters have gathered in the thai capital of bangkok for a 5th day they are rallying in defiance of a government ban and they're calling for the prime minister to stand down for reform of the monarchy and for a new constitution. u.s. forces in afghanistan to denying allegations of violating their agreement for the
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taliban by carrying out strikes in helmand province a taliban spokesman says the u.s. saw engaging in provocative actions and bombing known combat zones but the u.s. says it's not violating the agreement is acting in the defense of afghan security forces u.n. arms embargo on iran has expired off to me is it was lifted is part of the 2050 nuclear deal with world powers the u.s. withdrew from the pact in 2018 and its voice strong opposition to any easing of sanctions iranian foreign minister zarif welcome the development code to win for regional peace and security iran has a large domestic arms industry says it can rely on itself a defense. though the headlines more news coming up right after inside story.
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rising anger on thailand's streets at an unprecedented challenge to its monarchy protests against politicians and generals before but with demonstrators now also criticizing the king is this time different this is inside still. welcome to the program. thailand's king is facing his biggest challenge since ascending to the throne 4 years ago pro-democracy protesters are demanding curbs on his powers and they also want the prime minister for the army general to resign. the demonstrations are largely student led and have spread across thailand in
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recent months dozens were arrested or injured in rallies that took place in the last few days so what are the protesters main concerns about the time on a cape they accuse the king of moving beyond his role of a constitutional monic which has been the law since $932.00 they oppose his move to take personal control of tens of billions of dollars in crown assets the protesters also want to change it broadly worded laws that threaten anyone who criticizes the royal family with up to 15 years in jail activists also complain the king spends much of his time in europe mainly in germany we're going to guess in just a moment but 1st tony chang has this update from bangkok. this is the spot on friday where the thai government appeared to draw a line under their indulgent attitude toward student protest to be gaining momentum since july riot police and water cannon pushed back the protesters in scenes to show many thais and they saw them on social media and on t.v.
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the government has also employed new emergency legislation to seize those student leaders and on saturday the police effectively closed off the hold of central bangkok try and stop any more protests taking place the students have also be very results were using social media they've created. and they're. the same and want the government to step down they want the monarchy to be reformed and they want their leaders to be released on the harassment of those taking part in these protests what is this go from here well nobody's quite sure the protesters seem to be able to operate well surely the government will push harder. and it should be remembered that just down the road from here in 2010 the army used live fire against red shirt protesters the generals who are in charge on that day
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are running the country today many people here are concerned that could happen again. for inside story on tony. let's bring in our guest joining us from bangkok and that's at my had a pro-democracy activists and leader of the we vote movement in kyoto japan. associate professor of kyoto university and also in bangkok donovan ik chairman of the faculty of law at the college of asians call this a warm welcome to you all i'd like to begin in bangkok with you. these protests are getting bigger and bigger and bigger but it's not just the government in the firing line this time it's the monarchy as well and particularly the king what's the difference between these protests and process a decade ago when it wasn't really about monica he was about the money. i think
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because of the number of the cool accurate late and the parts that you just see that the monarchy needs reform in other have. to be really under constitution and not being able to interfere with politics that's the main reason i think well let me bring in poverty here as well you're in kyoto now this is a very interesting. period of time for thailand because the king is under much more a microscope than he ever has been before for what many people consider quite eccentric behavior staying in germany taking over $40000000000.00 worth of the country's assets and generally not trying to destroy a constitutional monarchy is that right well i mean that's quite right observation i think this is about him or not the not behaving constitutionally seems the interim and in 2016 you have seen the king attempting to consolidate his power once
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again of the constitution for example you know who had the constitution amended election to derogate fair saw that he could exercise more power and you yourself said that it is correct that the king of the transfer of the s.s. under crap of. to be under his or position worth about $60000000000.00 us dollars the king is also a lot we have his private troop and all store to be protected by the left in death the law so i think the students start up has come to terms with you know the demand for the reform you know basically to put it would not be back in the constitution whitest or difficult not so what do you think of that why is is the king trying to reinstill or instill a absolute monarchy. i think it is too far too late to say that because i don't have enough evidence and he's on the
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throne far far far just a few years but we we we see some some sign that is. the 1st thing after we have the new constitution. after it passed the referendum that was the in interference there to amend some clause that that that is about the king's authority and that is a worrying sign. donovan i can bangkok also i mean we are looking at a king who is not that popular amongst certainly students certainly the younger end of the population do you think there is a popular mass swelling of support for the for the anti want to movement what i i will not touch upon the popularity 'd of his majesty the king but i think the question that their students are costing 'd upon their reteam
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as well as the establishment and the government as a whole i think that is something to be look at that whether or not the the core of the proposal is actually demonstrating that there is a problem of popularity against the king. all 'd 'd is it the problem of the rich him as a whole that we are calling upon every form of democracy in this country that we think that the government is problematic and that we think that overall the institution is the head of state however the control of the country demonstration of the country is with india stablish meant hands and now the establishment has turned itself into the government and that might be the actual problem so if we can't tackle this issue together i think the question of popularity of the king
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might not be of a question but if it's this this king has is particularly controversial he lives in germany jade he doesn't respect numbers time he's trying to change the constitution and you are effectively saying that actually the process that should be processing is the government not the monarchy but this is a monarchy that is actually taking steps that are encouraging people to question his rule now i think if you look at the amendment to the constitution that has been raised that his majesty the king amended to served him self if you look at the draft constitution as a whole when he was drafted it was drafted under the reign of king robert and i. that had been many issues during such time that were written in order 'd to work their way out in their reign of king or on monday night we
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don't know what is that mean an what is with his majesty king $110.00 that his majesty has to stay in germany but the way in which his majesty is working under this current constitution also linked to the amendment to the constitution so that his majesty will be able 'd to serve the country better so i think if we look at it this way we will find out and at there is also some issues some aspects of the constitution that of course yes it is amend it might have to be very wise in the future but it's not caring towards the power all the royal pure operative of his majesty the king but caring towards how his majesty the king can work for the country more effectively yes but this is a king who has introduced the lez just laws which allow people to go to jail for
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criticism of the monarchy for up to 14 years that's a 15 years rather and that's a just tell me i mean when you listen to somebody like jade what are your thoughts do you think that you're not being respectful enough of the time when a key and actually what you're doing is incredibly disrespectful. i don't think that talk about me when he said not respectful because of yes the i think i have never done that i think among the pro-democracy movement there there is a diversity among us the way we may have the same aim and the same goal that we want to reform the monarchy because there are a few laws that is problematic as well for its for example the less matters than law which is not in line with the global spend are for the rules a lot but among among the movement we have some people who are quite radical in the way they communicate we have some people who community it rudely are even the
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famed the famed that are communicate in the way that you should not actually do that to anybody left alone being that are not and there are people who are just coming on the principle and and that that should be ok with every yes including that day and maybe of the ryan list so i think it is an important point that it's a very city among the pro-democracy movement and although you have the same goal in moving the country forward and to be in the international standard of democracy and constitutional monarchy the way we communicate it does affect people or people's fear living and that may may be the factor that that caused some of the major conflicts here. pavane in character is very interesting that what we're
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seeing to develop between our 2 guests different sides of the same protest coin is that the moniker he is seen to be quite a powerful institution but unlike in the u.k. where you have this free spirit head almost mocking of the monarchy in some points even if you're critical of the monarchy there still seems to be a knowledge of it that it is a powerful institution does that make this protest unique and a bit more difficult to try and get change. well i guess you know i mean the conversation this contestant started bought me because i don't know why the other presenter the artist commented the best if you do not get to the point just go out the coach come on you know we are doubt here and we know what we know what is the problem. it is ok to criticize them or not be and no matter you know how radical you are i mean you're talking about an institution that is so do watch for
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a lot of people who have been under disparaging for so long being dominated for so long you know when that benefit being kicked the tech away taken away i think you have to understand that this is a methodist. and the way that they rest on to you know in their protests could come across as radical i think ok with that right and this also compared with the u.k. monarchy to the british monarchy i have lived in the u.k. for many years and i can see a big difference big difference so well as you can mock you know the queen it is it ok because i mean the queen has certain status and and that she is to them and powerful even when she allows you know her people who criticise her i think that is it's not only true to make them or not remain powerful but also to the men . and also read for other people as well coming back to the time or not this is
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totally different issue we know the you know the problem with the less mcchrystal it has become you know of course a weapon anyone can use use this law to under my door open and so i think the more they use the law let me address it the more it could damage reputation of the one and that has been the issue the problem with the time or not you for so long jed august suggesting that this monica is using laws against its own people that may well but 5 to be the less majesty lowered and the community any criticism of the of the monarchy you could face 15 years in jail is the monocle the setting his powers . well no and i think i have 20 aspects to discuss here i i can agree with the when the 1st aspect that the some of the politicians and perhaps some of what part of the establishment in
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a long time of the thai history throughout many many coup step that happen and use the list majestic laws to suppress its opponents that i can agree with and i think that's wrong in itself and i don't think that has something to do with king rama that tends our current king directly at all because in raising the imprisonment of the less majestic law here in this country that happened long ago i think it was during the time that his majesty our current king was just appointed from by his majesty king my grandmother nine's as the crown prince so that's the 1st thing that yes i can agree with the 2nd thing is that when we look at insulting when we're looking at defaming 'd i think we have to differentiate between those and mocking our tontine and
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differentiate east with what we call commenting criticizing i think we can comment we can criticize but i think taunting someone mocking someone. even when someone raised the issue of it yes her majesty queen elizabeth the 2nd didn't mind but i think that is also disrespectful to majesty queen elizabeth the 2nd but there is a problem. there is a good day there is a difference between being critical and protesting the fact that the king spends most of his time in germany he's transferring $40000000000.00 from the state to a personal fund he is making moves so say the protesters to try and bring in an absolute want to keep those are fair criticisms are they not. well i think i'm not
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sure about being fair or not but i can i can accept that that is car comment are criticizing ok but what i was saying is that if it's up to the level of insulting or defaming it's wrong against everyone not only his majesty the king ok then the issue is that i think we have to tackle the real problem of this country and if we get through with the real problem of this country and if you think that hardly under a constitutional monarchy or democracy with king as head of state there is a problem in there i think we can call for reform of the regime of democracy with king as head of state or reform 'd of the reach aim of constitutional monarchy but not attacking directly to reform the monarchy or 'd to. discipline the conduct of his majesty to keep i think we have to separate all of these issues from each other in bangkok what our guest other guest in bangkok seems
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to be saying is that yes you can protest yes you can be critical however you can mock or insult the king but the laws are so wide and can be interpreted in many different ways are you worried that free comment fair criticism is going to be used against you and it will be seen as an insult and therefore you might be arrested. ok let me correct you a little bit i did not say that you cannot mock the king but i say that the way of communication may make the aim of reform becoming more difficult because we have to we have to me that the context in thailand the monarchy is part of the culture for for a long long time and sometimes it is done with propaganda and we are we are not that which mean there fractions in does
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a society and there is like to coalesce in the society and in order to make the reform possible you need the buy even from all parties are even and you need a consensus in order for the reform to take place and that's why i put a very high importance of how we communicate and yes i agree we should be able to criticize we should be able to to mock at a certain level of by certain people you cannot control the whole population. but in order for the real reform to make place we have to at the same time we talk we also have to have to listen and see what the other side being and that was my quite so far for your question about whether or not we can criticise fraley we cannot because at the moment when when they and they do and use the less matter as the law and we believe by the order of the king and the law is the u.s.
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for example or the computer crime act. in law which. we theri haase punishment and that is even more damaging to our rule of law in the country because the. authority who tried to have these toit the hero in that in order to make a. person you have t. and that is not right i would rather they use the less much just in law and trying to use of the word law which is not relevant to the act of the person and this is where the problem he's weak because we really cannot yet be formed the monarchy and because he cannot the parliament will not even talk about amending the list much as the law and when you try to avoid using a story that's where we all running out of actually already out of time and i do when it comes to our other guests as well and we will come back to you hopefully
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pov in less over the international. community just very quickly in germany the bundestag members of the bundestag of the parliament there have been very quietly warning about the king being spending all this time in germany the very uncomfortable with him consolidating power from germany who's backing the king who are his allies well i guess. i mean rather what happened in the german parliament was not really surprising to anyone else because as you said the king staying most of the time in germany n. i think the key issue here is basically the king might have been if the sizing his power you know under the german sovereignty saw there are 2 issues here if you want to go into it one is for a king to to bleach german sovereignty the other one is whether what it would a king has been doing in term of exercise exercise it is assessing his power on
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german soil whether it could become effective under the post-operative so i mean this could become sort of legal complications are i mean there's a lot of proof you know if you want to do so or for example the king has ratifying you know has side a number of official documents for example the royal guest said you know you can check when the stockmen were date if i'm sure that a lot of them were dated during which time the king stay in germany saw this is clearly i mean this is how the german parliament would like to highlight that even while he is staying in germany again he's exercising his power saw i mean if it is not illegal at this point it is definitely undue sure and appropriate so i think i was told that the german parliament would continue to look into this even including the issue of duction and healing up up up dissident overseas whether that
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would be a kind of involving let me just bring in jamie let me just bring in jade had jade how do you justify the fact that your king is living in germany and ruling almost from in germany. as i said that when the constitution was amended it was amended for his majesty our current king to be able to serve the country more effectively i don't get into how i reckon they were effect of live in germany or how does he do that. as i said that i don't get into the issue of why his majesty has to spend his majesty's time in germany but i look at how it's majesty is able to work and work effectively for the country the writers are using the time bank called you think is working effectively for the country from germany . i don't know enough detail to comment on that because of basically just have to sign some some some papers and. there
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was some law that that was delayed i remember but i cannot remember the detail here i think that information is still too late not to comment on that part and you had some things being very animated there tell us what you were thinking well yeah i mean how could how how could you talk about in effectiveness when do you know the hip hop if they're working elsewhere i mean i just want to give you a small example that you know we have we have a culture of your search of a good hand of certain get present present asian the king has the lay disorder many for 3 or 4 years just because you stay outside the country for so long this is something where trivial but if you really want to look at it with something more serious how couldn't be how could you say that this is for the kings or convenience when the king operates with taxpayer money it has to be to people convenience not
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picky convenience oh my god seriously. i'd like to thank all our guests tonya. pong and jade donovan and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by missing out website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story and you can also join the conversation twitter handle is at a.j. inside story for me and the entire team here in the life and. i.
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talk to al-jazeera. is the government not to take the necessary action to really address some of the structural issues we listen i still think that travel is the safest mode of travel and to spend that we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on which is 0 i want you to know our nation is going to defeat this said terrible china virus as we call it there is no place for hate in america well i'm feeling great out of a bad year worry mask is not a political statement it's a scientific recommendation the final presidential t.v. debate live on al-jazeera he began with war and to put it just here i got shot i felt i felt like i was that a documentary filmmaker once granted unconditional assigner contrasts his experiences with those seeking refuge today and intimate you know of the consequences of the policies of detainment is really unnecessary all this misery
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they cannot absorb this number that people have to suffer in this way it is unacceptable and refugees tail on to 0. this is al-jazeera. i live there i'm a clown this is a news our life and coming up the next 60 minutes polls have closed in guinea where president alpha condé his bidding for a controversial 3rd term. i made simmering ethnic tensions. a cry for peace in the middle of ruins as another. phase of an escalation in fighting between us and i mean.
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