The Fulfilled Drama of South Sudan Benydit and Guandit Not Bandit
By James Okuk
March 26, 2012 — Few weeks back in Juba after Mr. Pagan Amum, the Secretary-General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party, came back from Addis Ababa with a failed message of deadlock of negotiations on oil business with the Republic of the Sudan, he was shockingly received by Mr. ArthurAkuein Chol with a crown of rose full of irritating thorns.
The thorny crown was prepared inside the chamber of the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, especially with the provocation that emanated fromthe summoning of Mr. Uncle Commander Elijah Malok, former Governor of the Bankof Southern Sudan who has his signature on all the categories of South SudanesePound.
This former man of money declared himself in the factory oflaw as free from any suspicious closed-door deals, and instead accused Mr.Arthur Akuein to be the suspected thief of the missing public monies that wereaudited by the Auditor-General and his crew. He produced some documents for hisself-acquittal and was unhappy when the MPs did not use them as references inthe hot sitting where the opposition SPLM-DC appealed and urged for forgivenessof the SPLM suspected thiefs of public fund since they are above the their ownlaws.
However, Mr. Arthur Akuein didn’t raised an objection pausein the August House but rather called a press conference later in one of theexpensive eating houses in Juba where he accused SPLM VIPs from “ABOVE” ofordering him to spent and distribute the public monies in the way he did. Hewas playing loyalist game by then as the financial minister of the governmentof Southern Sudan to the SPLM VIPs from ‘Above’.
It came out from his press release that he sent a huge amountof millions of dollars to a personal bank account of Mr. VIP Pagan Amum, thoughhe shifted the paradigm later by saying that he wired the same huge amount tothe SPLM party’s bank account.
This contradiction seems to have watered down Mr. Arthur Akuein’s case. The dusty dangerous documents in a dusty briefcase by which hebullied his rivals with all throughout the past four years couldn’t support hisdefense for defamation of Pagan’s political image. The Equatorian judge disvaluedthe those documents and the Man from Bahr El-Ghazal was left to a teethy crocodilelike a Nile Perch who it used to fear before. Unless, Mr. Arthur Akuein isready to come up with another dusty briefcase full of dangerous financialdisbursement documents if disposed in front of a judge, his appeal looked possiblya lost gold in a goal.
Thus the drama of the Benydit and Guandit not Bandit could beseriated follows:
1) A SPLM member and a MP who is also ‘a suspected publicmoney thief’ shouted ‘thief’ at the SPLM Secretary-General in Home and AwayHotel in Juba. Two newspapers published the news about this courageous top-voiceshout.
2) But the SPLM VIP who was shouted at run to the policestation in Malakia to sue the shouter and publishers of the ‘thief shout news’.
3) The case was taken to court under torts rather thancriminal suit.
4) The assigned judge was so enthusiastic and capable ofpronouncing a final verdict within a very short period while many gravest casesremain pending in Juba courts since the arrival of SPLM bush government of theso-called liberators in 2005. It took Goldenberg corruption scandal in Kenya atleast two years before the final verdict. What a lucky and efficient SPLM legalcourt system and operation in Juba!
5) Funny enough one of the sittings was done in acontroversial visiting presence of the Chief Justice of the Republic of SouthSudan who could have been looking with red eyes at the judge during the process,and perhaps telling him in silence or in secret: “be with us or you are against us with consequence of possible loss of yourlucrative job of the rare job of ‘My Lord’, dare you take the opposite path withthem”.
6) Naturally, the case was in favor of the SPLM VIP who was sofortunate to get away with additional big amounts of South Sudanese Pounds, andtoo happy to the extent of unconsciously thanking the judge and othersupporters of his, and even the defendants who he was looking at as media toolsfor jumping to a mismatched conclusion of “acquittal” when there wasnothing of such kind in the first place. Juba University was fortunate to getthe SPLM VIP’s free donation from suspected money out of the court’s unveridicalfine.
7) Not only this, but also the Oyee Party’s VIP was soobsessed with the crony’s victory to the extent of forgetting that he was theone who sued the ‘thief shouter’ and the ‘publishers of the thief shout’. Hemight have been thinking at that moment as if he was the one who got sued inthe so-called court of quick law from “Above” in Juba.
Nonetheless, when plaintiffs start to think unconsciouslythat they are victorious by acquittal then something should be declared upsidedown in the system of justice of SPLM ruling party in South Sudan. This is notcommon in the common law. Perhaps a new precedent likely incoherent with the establishedprinciples of jurisprudence!
What is the message from this dramatic drama then? It couldbe put like this in a direct speech: “Youthe Non-VIPs of South Sudan dare you again “shout thief” to thewell-placed SPLM VIPs and you will face the same fate of Arthur Akuein,Al-Masir and the Citizen Newspapers; you will pay very heavy fines and evenimprisonments for your tongue or pens if you don’t shut them down like SouthSudan oil fields and behave like good boys to the liberators’ regime.”
But is Juba University so desperate and overwhelmed withpoverty and vulnerability that makes it susceptible of grasping any moneygotten by any means to the extent of waiting for judges of South Sudan “toacquit the plaintiffs” and “fine the defendants” so that thiscan become a source of revenue to the Capital City’s Varsity?
For me as a free citizen of South Sudan and part-timelecturer, the University of Juba should keep its dignity by declining thereceipt of the donation of the SPLM VIP, especially when it is coming out froma contested court’s ruling (pending for a suspected appeal as well).
Let’s our Mother Public University of South Sudan not bedefiled by money whose sources might be tainted with the dirt of evilness ofthe darkness that has befallen the public monies of South Sudan since 2005. Itis better to be poor and with dignity than be made rich and luxurious bydonations of suspected public monies’ thieves who pretend to be benevolently charitablebut only for shaky political gains and cover-ups in hunt for undeservedstudents’ support.
Let’s the SPLM VIP enjoy his own additional booty from thecourt without involving Juba University in his short-lived banquet of justicefor the strongest in South Sudan. Let him donate his booty to his own politicalparty so that it could build a permanent SPLM Secretariat Headquarters in Jubaor Ramciel after the temporary one was subsumed by fire last time.
Sincere charity should start at home and not anywhere elsefor us to be politically realistic and far from politics of Machiavellianism inSouth Sudan. Real justice from just and free law will prevail one day in SouthSudan when the calls for genuine reforms and change become a realistic dream seeableon the ground with realistic approaches rather than propaganda.
Long Live Juba University even with its current poverty! Awaywith SPLM Secretary-General’s unfortunate donation of the suspected money toour dear Mother University!
Dr. James Okuk (PhD) lives inJuba and could be reached at okukjimy@hotmail.