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Opinion

Asia's monarchies are no longer earning their keep

Hereditary rule undermines humanity's relentless quest for equality

| Australia
Queen Elizabeth II meets Scott Morrison and his wife Jennifer at Buckingham Palace in June 2019: the existence of monarchies in the 21st century is antithetical to democracy.   © Reuters

Greg Barns is a lawyer. He ran the 1999 Republic Referendum campaign in Australia, and was chair of the Australian Republican Movement from 2000-2002.

Across Asia, monarchs are in the news a lot these days. In Thailand, there is the rage felt by many toward King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who not only spends most of his time in Germany, but who is busily seeking to impose a repressive monarchical regime on his people.

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