BY EDITOR
9th November 2013
Whoever listened to the speech would agree that President Kikwete, as Tanzania Head of State and Commander in Chief of Armed Forces, indeed raised pertinent issues that Tanzanians of all walks of life want to hear from him.
Come rain come Sun our colleagues in the regional bloc should understand that each country is a sovereign State and each of the people in these States have the right to determine their own destiny. Tanzania has interest in the EAC, that’s why she was fully and actively involved in the process of reviving it.
However, it should be borne in mind that much as each EA Member State can have interest in the regional bloc there is no way EAC interest can dictate terms for each Member State. In that case, while we strongly support the re-establishment of EAC and all its stages to the final point of political federation it should not reach a point whereby the bloc’s interest must override Tanzania’s.
Land, labour market, immigration and political federation are matters that are required to be approached very carefully. Rushing to make decisions over such matters is by all standards not healthy if we indeed need to have a strong federation in future.
But Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are required to answer this question. Why did they decide to isolate Tanzania in their several meetings held in Kenya in the past recent months?
The question has not been publicly answered by any of the three leaders of the three States that have decided to go their own way.
According to President Kikwete there is no harm for any EA member State to enter bilateral or trilateral agreements but doing so on matters that are within EAC protocol or even on those that are yet to be decided upon raises many questions than answers, so to speak.
Undoubtedly, therefore, an atmosphere of mistrust has been created among EA member States, that is why some cabinet ministers were heard saying Tanzania could start weighing an alternative of approaching DR Congo to form another bloc alongside Burundi.
This mistrust must be worked upon by the bloc as a whole if other matters in the regional grouping are to continue as per the laid out plans, but cognizant of the truth that political federation cannot be attained by jumping some key integration processes such as monetary union.
President Kikwete has said it very boldly that ‘Tanzania is not pulling out of EAC unless other member States want it so. We believe Tanzania will be the last State to ditch the bloc should circumstances force her to.
Tanzania is a well renown State in the world of diplomacy, therefore it is our hope that, that same expertise will be used to iron out differences with the three EA member States, if any.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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