Mubukwanu calls on Oasis Forum to wake up

Mubukwanu calls on Oasis Forum to wake up
By Mwala Kalaluka and Fynold Mufwaafwi in Mongu
Sunday April 01, 2007 [04:00]

MONGU Diocese director of development Nathaniel Mubukwanu has urged the Oasis Forum to wake up and start steering the constitution review process again. And a Catholic priest from Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral in Mongu, Fr Gregory Muliya has said the battle for a new constitution was one that should be won at all costs. Meanwhile, Mongu Pastors’ Fellowship chairman Pastor Raphael Silwamba urged Zambians to rise to the occasion and counter President Levy Mwanawasa’s juggles over the enactment of the new constitution.

During a constitutional reform public discussion organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post at Ngulu Hotel in Mongu on Friday, Mubukwanu said the Oasis Forum had lost its initial momentum in the fight for a decent constitution. “The Oasis Forum have relaxed for too long, they need to wake up as well and start steering the process,” Mubukwanu said. “We seem to have lost momentum.”

He said the people of Zambia were looking up to the Oasis Forum because they knew what the organisation that comprised three church mother bodies and the civil society was capable of doing. “We look up to them because we know what they have done and what they can do,” Mubukwanu said. “They (Oasis Forum) should not sit back and play to the tune of the government.”

He said a proactive involvement of the Forum in pressing the government to let people have a constitution they wanted was the only hope that could determine the next step in the process, which he said had hit a snag. “Those who fight and run away will live to fight again. There is no substitute for a good constitution if we need to have substantial development in this country,” Mubukwanu said.

And another discussant, Fr Muliya said the battle for the enactment of the new constitution in line with the people’s aspirations does not need individuals with faint hearts.