To ordinary members, we learn about the goings-on from news reports, accurate or not. For the media houses, the talks make selling news items. The question that begs to be answered is: "How transparent and inclusive are these Talks?"It has become imperative that the Opposition Parties participating in the Umbrella Talks appoint spokespersons who would jointly address frequent press briefings to keep their members and the general public abreast of progress and challenges with the Talks. The Conveners should do likewise for unbiased commentary.
Let us take a leaf out of the book of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). This was a multi-party negotiation process that worked out the road map that paved the way for the New South Africa. Much as sub-committee negotiations were held in camera, the main discussions at CODESA were televised.Participating political parties also held regular press briefings, interviews and participated in live debates on various television channels, programmes and discussion panels. As a result, the ordinary man in the street was kept well-informed of these important groundbreaking negotiations.
