(DAILY MAIL) Opposition political parties call for platform

Opposition political parties call for platform
By JERRY MUNTHALI

SOME opposition political parties have called on Government to provide a platform on which they can offer solutions to the problems the nation is facing while others have called for a national economic convention to discuss strategies to overcome the global financial crisis.

This follows government’s challenge to opposition political parties to suggest how the problems the nation is facing can be solved instead of accusing government of using the global financial crisis to justify its alleged failures.

The opposition political parties calling for a platform are the Patriotic Front (PF), United Party for National Development (UPND), the former ruling party, UNIP and the National Democratic Focus (NDF).

PF president Micheal Sata said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that government should come up with proposals on how the opposition political parties could help resolve the problems the nation was facing.

“We can only participate if government brings on the table what it wants to do to get us out of this problem. It is government which must say these are our proposals, can you please assist us and we will go back to our people,” Mr Sata said.

UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma said it was the responsibility of government to provide a platform for opposition political parties to offer solutions to the problems the country was facing.

“The solutions are there and we are ready to provide them; but government has not provided a platform for providing those solutions. Government must tell us how to provide those solutions,” Mr Kakoma said.

He said the UPND was ready to dialogue with government as suggested by President Banda.

Mr Kakoma wondered how the opposition would offer solutions to the problems the nation was facing without a platform.

NDF president Ben Mwila called on government to make a formal invitation to the opposition parties so that they could dialogue over the economic problems of the country.

“Government will do well to call for a national economic convention where people from all walks of life will come to contribute, including on how we will prepare for the real crunch because it has not yet come,” Mr Mwila said.

He said the national convention would help in educating some leaders instead of the mudslinging that was going on.

Mr Mwila called on Zambians to emulate countries like the United States (US) that united to overcome the economic crunch.

UNIP secretary general Alfred Banda said UNIP was a member of the Zambia Centre for Inter-Party Dialogue (ZCID) and that it firmly believed in dialogue.

“If Government is calling for dialogue, that is a welcome move and UNIP is ready to dialogue. We believe that these issues can only be resolved through dialogue and not through other means,” Rev Banda said.

On Tuesday, Chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha challenged opposition parties to suggest how the problems the nation is facing can be resolved instead of accusing government of using the global financial crisis to justify its alleged failures.