Editor,I read the article titled, "Businesses demand EALA seat” in the yesterday’s issue of The New Times, with a great deal of interest. The article was appealing because, first, it was the first time that our business leaders had shown keen interest in joining politics, at least publicly, and second, because I thought that the East African Community (EAC) is essentially about business.I have nothing against the private sector umbrellas from the five EAC partner states, including our own PSF. Nonetheless, I wondered why the businesses don’t first seek representation in national parliaments before fighting for EALA slots?For instance, in Rwanda’s Chamber of Deputies, apart from the representatives of political parties who are elected through universal suffrage, there are representatives of three special interest groups, namely, women, the youth and the disabled. And this is something that’s stipulated in our constitution. These four categories are the very ones which pick their representatives in EALA. I guess the same happens in the other partner states, at least the majority of them.My advice to the East African Business Council (EABC) is that they should first encourage their affiliate federations to seek representation in their respective national parliaments and then move on to the regional assembly later. It should be a bottom-up approach.Jani Mbabazi,Huye