A genuine, effective and successful dialogue aims to achieve a win-win outcome and requires every participant to be sure and honest that their motivation and objective is not personal and partisan, says veteran politician Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika.

Prince Lewanika who is fondly referred to as AKA, said this in a comment to Brebner Changala’s statement where the civil rights activist expressed concern over the Patriotic Front’s backpedaling on the scheduled dialogue process.

PF deputy media director Antonio Mwanza has defended the President’s decision to keep the Commonwealth away from spearheading the Dialogue process, but Changala said the former FDD spokesperson was too excited to please his new found family friends and was in the process sounding like a danger to himself and the youth movement in Zambian politics.

AKA then seized the moment to guide on what genuine dialogue means.

“A genuine, effective and successful dialogue aims to achieves a win-win outcome. What is required is: (1) for each and every participant to be sure and honest that their motivation and objective is not personal and partisan (2)for each and every participant to contribute towards confidence building in other participant. (3) for each and every participant to be genuinely open-minded and ready to both fully and positively express themselves and to keenly listen and be ready to appreciate the concerns and points of views of others,” he said.

“A genuine dialogue requires (4) for each and every participant to be ready to engage in a give-and-take open and mutually respectful discussion, including being able to see own short-comings and to be able to admit where other may be right as well as to be able to consider and reconsider their own and other participants’ original start off positions.
(5) for each and every participant to be ready and willing to embark unto a new kind of relationship that is accommodating to all participants.”

He said in order for the PF and UPND to have a successful dialogue, they would have to put aside their ego.

“It requires for each and every participant to be ready and able to put aside egotistical, partisan and short term consideration in preference for common ground and long term considerations. These are the minimum and necessary conditions for a genuine, effective and successful dialogue with a win-win outcome,” said AKA.