The Dangerously Slow Wheel of Justice in the Republic of South Sudan
4 min readThe wheel of justice moves dangerously slow, even slower than the weakest tortoise in South Sudan
By Dut Deng kok, Juba, South Sudan
Wednesday, July 17, 19 (PW) — Aside the fact that South Sudan is generally viewed as a paradox of a nation because of the inability of the nation – state to deploy the enormous natural and human resources to scale up the deteriorating standard of living and better the society for the benefit of all, it is also seen as such because of the dangerous collective amnesia that afflicts majority of the citizenry.
Few years back, at around 2013, a scholar was quoted as saying that most South Sudanese when pushed to the wall, rather than fight back, would drill a hole through the wall and escape. Most South Sudanese seem to like persons who lack the courage of conviction to fight since it is generally assumed in South Sudan that only the living can fight a second time.
This unfortunate mindset has led many South Sudanese to allow the society to go to the dogs and the institutions of State are now headed by persons who lack the necessary competences and skills to facilitate South Sudan’s arrival at the doorstep of 21st century compliant fast moving computer age. South Sudan is stocked in the pre-medieval or rather Stone Age mentality of survival of the fittest whereby even those appointed into offices believe and practice the theory that says MIGHT IS RIGHT.
This metaphor of South Sudan as a functional paradox simply means that millions of South Sudanese are so docile to a fault to an extent that the populations have this uncanny character to tolerate the worst forms of depraved and criminal leadership in the body politics.
The docility of the ordering South Sudan, which is virulent, is the cause of the gross underdevelopment of the country by the successive administrations that have ruled the nation since independence. The predatory political classes have become prolific because the people are docile and are sleeping on their rights as human beings endowed with the faculties of Rationality and Resilience.
The docility of a South Sudanese and the lack of assertiveness is also the reason why there is virtually no good governance at virtually every levels of government. It is for this intolerable level of docility that governance even at the most rudimentary levels have disappeared.
Perhaps, the area that has suffered the most due to this groundswell of lack of the will to demand accountability from the leaders by the citizenry, is the persistent cases of violent attacks that take place in different parts of South Sudan by a diverse class of armed freelance killers and gangsters, but there is apparently no certainty that those who commit those atrocities and their sponsors responsible for thousands of fatalities can be brought to justice.
Aside the ugly fact that the wheel of justice moves dangerously slow, even slower than the weakest tortoise, there is usually the failure of most government officials to deliberately activate legal, judicial and law enforcement mechanisms that would decisively bring these violators of the South Sudan law to justice even when the constitution absolutely outlaws murder and extra judicial killings.
Dut Deng kok is a south Sudanese opinion writer and he can be reachable visa email; dutmanyang@gmail.com
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