Prime
Annual letter to readers
Author: Moses Khisa. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Dear reader, when I file this column, every Wednesday night or Thursday morning, a sense of moral duty to society is the driving spirit, the overarching motivation. To have the opportunity to meet that remit through this space, generously courtesy of Monitor Publications, is special and priceless.
An interruption to the series I have been writing on political order is in order. It is that time of the year I return to you, the readers, to reiterate that this is your column. I write because of you. I am the writer, but the space is yours.
Appropriately named ‘Majority Report’, over the years this column has sought to make the case for the public good, broadly conceived. While the perceptive Asuman Bisiika in his ‘Minority Report’ indulges in the high politics of elite intrigue and machinations, statecraft and power play, delivered with a contrarian tinge, my ‘Majority Report’ strives for the big picture argument with a public interest focus.I took up writing a newspaper column nearly 14 years ago. Rather than see it as a challenging job, however, I have gone about this task with a deep sense of privilege, honour and humility.
As an academic (whatever the formal titles), I am acutely aware that I write from a vantage position of privilege, in a conducive environment and vast resources necessary for intellectual productivity at my disposal.The uniqueness of my profession offers one the latitude to engage in public discourse unencumbered by considerations of job security or the need to kowtow to any authority or individual.Indeed, the norm of academic freedom, which is central to the academic profession, grants academic practitioners far-reaching autonomy to pursue ideas, conduct research and advance arguments that push the frontiers of knowledge and disturb the status quo.
To that end, I have always felt that citizen-intellectuals, particularly those located in the university, owe a special debt to society by dint of the uniqueness of their profession. That social debt includes candidly and courageously take on the key issues of the day, provide voice and the force of argument in pursuit of the public good and the quest for a just society.
Different individuals and groups have varied duties and the debts they owe society, which they may or may not fulfil and are sometimes realised in ways not very apparent or recognisable, let alone appreciated.For the academic and the intellectual, the foremost duty is to speak out especially in the face of injustice and abuse of the public interest, to challenge received wisdom and question established authority. To be silent is to be complicit, a dereliction of duty.
Dear reader, when I file this column, every Wednesday night or Thursday morning, a sense of moral duty to society is the driving spirit, the overarching motivation. To have the opportunity to meet that remit through this space, generously courtesy of Monitor Publications, is special and priceless.
The ‘Majority Report’ has run for six years, nonstop, every week except once due to an editorial logistic and not for failure to file. Even with the feeling of resignation that is so inviting and inescapable, despite the circularity of our discourse, the echo of ad nauseam, the sense that there is nothing more to say about our problems as a country, writing a column like this remains distinct and worthwhile.
In writing this annual letter, I seek to reaffirm my commitment and renew our unwritten social contract, one that is unbinding, to be sure, but which I nevertheless take very seriously.My unequivocal pledge is to write every week, doing so with condor and consistency, hopefully through more accessible prose and clarity in communication. I will maintain the style of forcefully speaking directly to the most important issues, albeit not with the sensationalism of ‘breaking news’, but rather by offering thoughtful insights and critical reflections.
We live in an era of enormous problems, where so much has gone wrong, with clouds of gloom and emptiness, but it is also a world of possibilities, often-dramatic changes, and expected breakthroughs.
While we must remain alert to the myriad problems and obstacles staring menacingly at us, it is equally important to be awake to the openings for progress, productivity and transformation. ‘Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will’, as the Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci noted more than a century ago.
There is no question that we have a broken political system and an autocratic regime superintending a dysfunctional governmental apparatus, but in our collective aspirations and shared dreams are hopes for remaking Uganda.The current rulership will end at a not-so-distant future, no doubt; the dilemma though is the morning after and how to pick up the pieces to forge ahead.Ours is a country of immense possibilities and vast endowments, enormous resources both natural and human.
Finding the fix, getting the right framework for a good government and setting up the pillars of economic productivity remain elusive. This, though, is by no means unique to Uganda.At any rate, we have to keep searching for a way out of the ‘Uganda problem’, to struggle but not despair. In the hopes that the coming year brings better outcomes and pleasant surprises, I end on an optimistic note and with all the best wishes. Aluta continua!
