The Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) held a meeting with the representatives of the political parties, civil society and the business community in Zanzibar yesterday, 22nd April 2002.
The Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly, Hon Abdulrahman Kinana, the Secretary General of the East African Community, Hon. Amanya Mushega and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Zanzibar, Mar Pereira Ame Silima, attended the meeting, which was held at the Bwawani hotel.
The members of the EALA are on a four-day visit to Zanzibar during which apart from their educational and familiarization tour they will hold a seminar on Parliamentary Procedure and Practice and the working relationship between the organs of the East African Community.
Hon. Kinana stressed the need for the members of the East African Legislative Assembly to familiarize themselves with the economic and social situation in the different parts of the East African region and to seek the views of the east African people from all walks of life.
This, Hon. Kinana said would enable the EALA to discharge their mandate effectively in articulating the needs of the region and championing the interests of the people.
He said the meetings with the people would also contribute to raising awareness about the aims and objectives of the Community. He said it was the right of the people to be informed about the Community and about the benefits, which they would expect from region integration.
He said the East African Community had achieved a great deal since 1996 in laying the groundwork for regional integration in East Africa. He called for intensification of the public awareness programme of the EAC, which would demonstrate the benefits of the co-operation, which the Partner States were already pursuing in political affairs, including co-operation in defense and security and foreign affairs co-ordination.
Participants in the meeting stressed the special interests of island economy of Zanzibar which was dependent mainly on agriculture, in particular cloves, as well as tourism and trade. They wanted to know how Zanzibar’s “small economy” would benefit from the East African Community.
Hon. Kinana made a spirited fence of the Community in allaying the fears expressed in the meeting that participation in the Community would marginalize the economy of Zanzibar. He stressed that co-operation was invariably positive and that as far as the co-operation in the East African Community was concerned, all efforts were being made to ensure that everybody gains but does not lose.
The Speaker said that Zanzibar was represented effectively in all the meetings and deliberations of the Community and that the interests of Zanzibar as an integral part of the United Republic of Tanzania and indeed of the East African Community were safeguarded at the highest and all levels. “Maslahi ya Zanzibar inazingatiwa kwa hali ya juu”, he said in Kiswahili.
Noting the frankness with which some of the participants had expressed their anxiety over some issues in the regional integration process, Hon. Kinana welcomed the development, stating that it was necessary for the people to “open up and speak up” on Community issues as the way forward to ensure the sustainability of the Community.
He defended the right of the people to seek to learn what there was to gain from the Community and equally their right to be informed of the benefits of regional integration.
“Haki ya kuuliza ipo. Haki ya kupata maelezo pia ipo”, he said in Kiswahili stressing that efforts would be stepped up to raise awareness in Zanzibar as well as in other parts of East Africa about the East African Community and to involve the people deeply in the regional integration process.
Outlining the successive stages provided in the development of the Community through the Customs Union (the entry point of the Community); the Common Market, subsequently a Monetary Union and ultimately the political federation of East Africa, he said intensive consultations and exhaustive negotiations would be carried out through all the stages to ensure that the interests and concerns of all the Partner States were carefully taken into account.
Zanzibar, he said, stood to benefit from being part of the larger East African market where she would trade her goods and services and also from being part of a regional economic bloc which would be more competitive in the global markets.
The Honourable Speaker and the Members of the EALA, paid tribute to the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and the late President Amani Karume for the achievement of the Union of Tanzania in 1964. They said this was the first time two African countries had united to become one country and now the challenge for the East African Community was to go a step further and realize the Political Federation of East Africa.
The members said that Zanzibar had great potential in her resourceful people and a long tradition of trading as well as unique tourist attraction and other resources which would benefit from the co-operation provided by the larger East African market.
Further, they said that as an integral part of Tanzania and the EAC, Zanzibar would gain from the co-operation in defense and security, infrastructure, trade and industry, which the Community was promoting. Zanzibar would also gain from the East African Development Bank and the Inter-University Council for East Africa, amongst other institutions of the East African Community.
The Hon. Speaker called on the private sector and civil society in Zanzibar to get positively involved in the projects and programmes of the EAC adding that the EAC would soon invoke Article 127 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC, which requires the Secretary General to establish a forum for consultations with the NGOs and civil society.
