Aid can be sent sixteen people died in the strongest hurricane to hit the u. S. Territory in nearly ninety years the headlines in new york continue but first lets go to the streets. Says all sorts in an age of simplistic narratives the listening post critiques the mainstream response exposing the influences that drive the headlines at this time on aljazeera. Is uganda going to have a president for life a proposed bill to amend the countrys constitution has sparked an intense debate online tension in the streets brawls in the parliament and of media shut out. And here in the stream live on aljazeera english and on you tube and im dan ming the conversation has been fiery online now bringing in your tweets and your tip comments as they come in now take a look about panel bachus a sample of the comments weve been getting for the show this pitch comes to us from our Uganda Community here is james problem. I missed this because i feel its coming. From entering into. What you presume somebody oh so this is why we need to use the International Meet the International Media to cover such stories sunday morning something. That is to say that we did ration presidency in any government apart from the president will billions of his we are there for disgusted by this month. And we stand to see walk up or down vote with i did. A bill to scrap constitutional caps on politicians in uganda has put democracy to the test. The and eat beef. These are just some of the scenes from parliament on tuesday as that bill came under debate parliamentarians hurled chairs and swung microphone stands exposing a bitter rift between lawmakers m. P. s from the opposition have vowed to fight the amendment apparently ugandan law prevents anyone over the age of seventy five from running for office the Ruling National Resistance movement is looking to amend that provision to prevent discrimination in politics the president s party enjoys an overwhelming majority in the assembly and the bill is expected to pass president Yoweri Museveni has been in power since one nine hundred eighty six hes largely dismissed the amendment and chided other leaders who refused to leave office where he is speaking to al jazeera in april theyve been looking me in this by two more years you know. Are you going to run for another term. You not going to run from out of the full orchestra as you reach the age limit in three years and you will not follow the. Can you explain that it doesnt have to do but there are reports that you are about to change the constitution so that it can allow you to run for another term told you its not going to happen and we will follow the constitution of uganda and what you do we will do if you prove you going to change the constitution like under the constitution because i dont have that problem but is this something that is in the discussion or in uganda that is speculation and it was targeting for speculation. Joining us now jackson for a few see is a member of parliament for south bobby wine as an opposition member of parliament for john doe east uganda raymond wood uni is a journalist for in t. V. And john m. Back who is professor of economics at Weber State University in ogden utah welcome to this stream gentlemen bobbie im going to start here on my laptop with a Facebook Post but out by members of your team yesterday at eleven nineteen amid a ruthless wrap up by state operatives of the Parliament Today you know their honorable members were detained in police vans and driven to separate Police Stations right now hes in custody at the Police Station so you were just released from jail in the early hours of thursday tell us about what happened during that scuffle in parliament from your perspective. Well on tuesday one of the members of parliament came into the chamber actually the ground on the right one and she will be one of the members great than a lamp and all of our weapons so a scuffle broke out and i made. Him a gun to. Pick up not where the house could not continue or smoke us or up to and it was just so on wednesday that because i came and indeed compounded that the owner. I had to come in and who did that Security Check so you would get spending but surprisingly even we remember the grave concern for spending so we were not allowed to say anything even when to try to object to read this because give back to me not to. Get out of the chamber i mean listen to me. Soldier strong to the parliament so yes from the special forces command. In leeds brigade that got the president and came started wrapping up members of the opposition and they need beating us up so we had to put up by but because there were too many a car that drives us out touch our allies and then. Doctors and police ones and drove us and detained us for all. We need one drop of homes so clearly a very serious situation but take a look at my laptop here and there are ugandans on twitter who are finding the levity and all of this a few quick means here with your face photo shopped over other peoples issue in a fighting ring here is you looking like rambo or a bad. Week and this one on top of doing some fighting with the hash tag dont touch it meaning to the president ial age limits so levity on line but this is a serious issue why is it so important to you probably one. Article one zero two is very important because now it is the only lasting remy do we have peaceful transition of power needless to mention that uganda as neighbor had a peaceful transition of power from one to another and indeed thats one of the reasons that raised in the bush because he promised a fundamental change promised real democracy and when he won power of the people then joined him. And hand over power to a civilian government. Since then he has been looking in new light every time mandate expires for the last thirty one yes and today. We need. Mandatory. Expire he is moving together with party to amend the constitution while i will be president for life. Right so id like to get you into the conversation raymond youre a journalist whos been covering this story take a look at this tweet we got from hannah she says leave the constitution as it is to change it to suit one man is unpatriotic and selfserving shes implying that this changes all forms seventy she says i love my uganda but hate my government raymond what are you hearing what are what is the reaction been to this proposal to remove age limits. Before we get to the reaction i think its for the exposes you need to know that uganda is what has one of the youngest populations in the world but also you have only two point seven percent about populations actually above the age of sixty five and the number of people that have actually seen a presidency that is not my seventies presidency im not even more than twelve percent and part of the things that many people fear is that we might have another. Transition of power thats not peaceful and so the safeguards that are left in the constitution for peaceful transfer of power right now theres only one and thats one of the seventy five limit well it doesnt that the president has said that this doesnt solve it in fact he has and i know that the existence of this is limited the last time he spoke about it was somewhere on july nineteenth when you say that there was no motion to the bit so there was not need for us to talk about its limit but again more of that a lot of pushing for eight people from the ruling party and the ruling but he has a caucus a caucus which he is the chairman of so there is already at the heart of it at the heart of the matter many people say that sixty five out good will survive if it passes the president of the country right now. And the moment when we are being done also raises bit of of question we saw yesterday the people well that came into parliament to take out. The members of parliament that had been stuck in parliament the members that you saw walk into parliament and. I actually members of the elite of the president ial special forces command. Many of them their faces have been highlighted close to the president on many occasions guiding him and then of course the parliament rules of procedure clear that if a member of parliament was been suspended doesnt leave the house then it falls upon the sergeant of arms. So it remains a big question why the sergeant of arms who was present then was not allowed to do their job and then of course we had to take extra security from the president s got to come and lift members of parliament out but of course on the streets remains a very contentious much of the ruling party has numbers in the house they have about three hundred fact three hundred and three in peace and the independence of sixty six i think forty eight of the sixty six independent m. P. s are in the room and it was just as fifty six so if it comes down to give a number the opposition doesnt stand a chance and the education that you see from the opposition to stop it in its early stages is that it shouldnt get down to a game of numbers because they will lose their ok so i hear what youre saying ram and i want to bring in a member of the president s ruling in our in Party Jackson youre joining us now can you lay out your partys case for supporting this bill and listen to my colleagues or listen when i watch our money. We are making amendments to suit the needs of the president so i keep telling my colleagues that and they did say i didnt think you should have given two books one would please levels of procedure. The second one is the constitution you are expected to read it out transitional. Opposition was motivated in one thousand nine hundred five in a november and a constitutional law and the constitution is a living thing it must not be a region but must also not be very flexible must be adaptable it must allow for i mean even article two fifty nine of our constitution. Relates that our constitution. And states procedure has to be amended as long as this was right and jackson i appreciate that you are a lawyer and so youre coming at this with a legal perspective but for our audience who is watching in uganda who are lawyers and they know their constitution and they know the articles they know that it is a living document and can be amended what they want to hear from you is why do you think that these age limits should be scrapped lets say im getting places that you see i could go on it to be of up with you should so you cannot stand still in a c. Five or district boston unless you are thirty five years of age. And yet the simple solution is as long as. You can stand. Now that our lawn is disenfranchising the u. S. Who would be really. In leadership i think a lot of those our democratic principles i think. Indicate told me that we should do all that it takes to create an all inclusive political process so that everyone but. Now youre telling me its not even trying to jump in here. Is that they are already kind. Of jumping up jumping here but. Consider him a star and i dont know any of us are asking is it just now watching us realize that many of these i dont know if you know. That hes a felon or a man i dont hear a man im hear your question i said i mean right i was probably right also raising his hand on you want to respond i want to get i want to get our community i want to get our community because im also listening to jackson go ahead dan so weve got. Jackson just take a listen to this tweet and a video comment ill pose them to you sound from a says first it was tournaments now its age limits next year it will be the president ial election scrapped off and then i want you to take a listen to this video comment we got from rose garden but lives in sweden. Right now president seventy removed already the president ial term limits thats fine ugandans are willing to fight out on this one its like its the only thing separating them from ever deciding for the i want this to me because as long as the president s image on the ballot we have had so many elections that are not free and fair given we know that its never going to be free and fair if they come in if prison seventy in particular who has interest for thirty one years is still on the ballot so this is about the future of uganda so jackson this is what were hearing people are worried they saw the grabber government scrapped term limits in two thousand and five and now they see this proposal to get rid of age limits as just further entrenchment of the seventies power and a possible president for life what do you say to that concern jackson. Following elections in may two thousand and one they contend then you enter the spin ports and say to petition the Supreme Court medical mandation which you are not followed by the government and in two thousand and six the same. Court did not with those recommendations in effect now in two thousand and sixteen im a numbers went to lisp in court and fired a petition and this state with all and because. It had been ignored by the government sit down. And say these should be put in effect within two yes from the time of the elections. From the time of the swearing in and as we speak now we are left with six months to go past the deadly sit by the spill now but really having a lot of value when its actually had something to that. We can. Nice and one wheeling talks in one second on your way or coming from bobby or hands free. For the benefit of our people listening in uganda under love of the world we are talking about article one zero two b. And this is an article that limits the president ial age limits yet you are talking about. Discrimination but i mean the constitution is twenty two years old it has never come up until now when president museveni is being excluded by the no the same thing happened when president was seven was finishing his second term in power that is when the Ruling Party Members to scrap of term limits and now they are trying to scrap of age when you see it is rather shameful for a lawyer like my brother jackson or food to try and mix up issues were not talking about l. Z. Five we are talking about president ial and if you are trying to you know hide behind the youth then its even more shameful because we are looking at the youth i did a thing for change and this is the only opportunity to have another generation over from the older generation peacefully. Oh you know who you know right now id like to just get in and bring in some more comments were getting from the ugandan sunline and id like to pose this to raymond youre a minute to take a look at this tweet that we got jackson just hold on raymond so tony says i was there and this was a university protest by the way he says i was there and he saw tear gas Police Brutality as arrests were made he said he was able to take this picture and then we also got piper who said that at this university protest Security Forces treated whoever they met as a criminal its like it was a crime to be born on campus that day raymond can you explain to me can you describe to me what kind of reaction were seeing from the authorities when students have gathered to protest this proposal to remove age limits. Well their reaction has been the same everyone that has come up to protest. This particular removal of michael want to be has been arrested now its laws that hopper just forty eight have not been arrested weve seen their protest march through town and seen the much through town in the months through college town and theres i think different times now different places in campuses Like Macquarie University but when you busted all that they went by them and was having the scuffle that you just described many of the students after they tried it up in being arrested or being brutally hundred im not kidding right now as we speak we still have military camp there and so it does raise a lot of questions about the behavior of the Security Forces but these are questions that have been persistent about oh yes she was a country that the Security Forces always opt for and on behalf of the person that is in power and your position is raise that a couple of times i want to be to respond also to to the lawyer about. The Supreme Court which should now the Supreme Court may actually get a pardon there rehman because when you mention Supreme Court petition i know that a lot of eyes glaze over in our International Community and i know that john wanted to get in as well so john what did you want to add were. I hate to put it this way but i think. What the people of uganda are going through is not unique to uganda a lot of african countries are going through the same problem and i think part of the reason theyre going through this problem is that theyre looking at their own problems im afraid to say that they ugandans currently looking at the wrong problem because they have term limits the president is the change that. They have they have actually made the president and his party are now trying to change that so i think that one day you can and should be talking about right now which is what i think what african countries. Should be talking about is how to make sure that the constitution cannot easily be manipulated by whoever i said government to suit themselves i think that even if. Theyre ugandans eventually. In this case and i love to say that theres no reason why someone coming in even after seventy would not try to do the same thing and change limits did could stay in power indefinitely so i think that the discussion that we should be having is a discussion on how to make sure that we have a constitution in uganda that cannot easily be manipulated by whoever is in government so that they can. Take the constitution to mid dont miss this second thing that i want to talk about or i want to say it very briefly is that people are you gonna and people in all african countries sure understand why it is and this is said to put limits on the under president obama is to encourage political competition in countries that have seen where there are no limits on the presidency young people eventually become so discouraged that they have no interest in politics because a knew that the person in power is going to stay there as you see in ramadan a definite. This can i just like i just like to get a comment and and read it for bobbie why and we got this comment from you donny barnes as a two term limit is a must to ensure a peaceful transition of power seven years making himself i can bobby wine what would you like to see done to rectify the situation as here actually i would like to see if he didnt must have been a little restraint is what he has always been saying and if you yes meet at the gate or if i ask he was uganda this place where you were listening to. All of us which every other person he thought i was going to get it once. Comicon solution area but it just. Whoever is willing and their book is free to contest where you see the. President if you know you can because you want him to come on well well you cannot be president must have been at the apollo because elections are not free and fair are just. Two thousand and sixteen we went to the ballots you saw it as clearly as i saw it that it was rigged the military took over all polling stations. When they when our doctor was incarcerated at his house are not even allowed to go and be dishing the results of the election so you realize that for as long as president most seventy is on the ballot the election is just a formality that is why we are saying that you know. Only four minutes of. Content if it under the performance of one of the campaigns so that if people are greedy that i mean stabilities they give you another term if they dont actually have you know all this well judge and i mean thats you thats a good question there is a living thing and the president is going to run again in twenty twenty one i can not say yes or no because thats a personal choice it is up to him to make that choice while sat down fortunate id like to give the last word to community we got this tweet from r. K. And uganda he says this is the fork in the road where the end around lots of ruling party can either choose and organize the first trans a peaceful transition or have history repeat itself interesting comment bobbie one i will give you the very last word in about twenty seconds we know that this bill is expected to pass because the ruling party has a majority in parliament what happens next on your end. Well. It has always been saying say that history repeats its better but one word is money in uganda hold idiotic there say thats not true you say stupid people will be history so in order to avoid the repudiation of our marquee history it is important for president museveni to give you a gun and a gate and get him to the peaceful transition of power and you need to give him sail a game a beautiful legacy and no but you need bobby i am as she was hot as you know there in our conversation will continue with the hash tag hash tag jetstream thanks sarin gas and our community for pitching the show will see online. And monday pointed well on the. U. S. And British Companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped Natural Resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to for dry riverbeds like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their countries havent truly been able to escape the war. In the off the mouth of civil war peace and reconciliation i remember seeing in the absence of justice. People in power on earth chilling testimonies of atrocities suggesting all foreign teams have failed to conduct full and proper investigations that could help heal resentment inflicted by conflict. Cote divoire partial justice at this time on al jazeera. On. Aljazeera. Where ever you are. This is al jazeera and live from studio fourteen here at aljazeera headquarters in doha im come out sons and area welcome to the news spreads