Chan ‘Injustice’ Reec Madut

By Tearz Ayuen

In November or December 2010, I sought to interview Chan Reec Madut on some questions regarding the referendum, which was due in a month or so.

By then, he was the chairman of the referendum commission, deputized by Dong Samuel – the prominent human rights lawyer and Nuer man whom his tribesman VP Taban Deng Gai had dismembered and his body parts thrown to crocodiles as meal at Luri in January 2017, according to UNSC.

Taban probably had Dong and his comrade Aggrey Idri kidnapped in Nairobi, illegally transported to Juba, and murdered in cold blood three days upon arrival in order to consummate his new political marriage with President Salva Kiir after King Paul drove Dr Riek Machar to DR Congo in July 2016, leaving the first vice president seat vacant.

Back to Chan. As a junior reporter, some senior colleagues doubted he would speak to me, citing arrogance and general hostility against the media.

When I got to his office located at Amarat, near Amarat Classic or De’ Havana Lounge, Chan surprisingly welcomed me with open arms and answered my questions on preparedness for the vote.

I liked him. Very eloquent and knowledgeable. Well-educated. Good grammar too. I later learnt that Chan was one of the best students in the Sudan during his era.

But Robert G Ingersoll, American writer and lawyer, writes in an article published in 1902:

“Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test.”

Almost immediately after Chan assumed his role as chief justice in August 2011, his true colors began to show. A thousand serpents began to peep from pores of his skin.

Several media reports suggest that the man has been engaged in several questionable deeds, including favoritism, lack of strategic direction, and nepotism, particularly when he handpicked his daughter as legal assistant in 2013.

Instead of doing everything by the book – focus on administration of justice, Chan chose to be in bed with the Executive, making great legal minds such as Justice Clement Kuc and Justice Panchol Awal (late) resign.

As an administrator of the judiciary, he has individualized the docket. Everything literally belongs to him. All funds are deposited into his personal bank account.

As you read this line, the man holds car keys for about 20 vehicles donated to the judiciary by UNDP. He reportedly personally starts engine for every car every morning to avoid battery drain.

These are vehicles that were meant to facilitate movements of judges and transport for suspects.

When justice is serviced, it prevents the wronged from taking law into their own hands.

In football, for example, a referee renders instant justice to prevent violence on the pitch.

A player who kicks in his opponent’s teeth or triple him on purpose gets a red or yellow card, depending on the severity of the foul.

The victim’s team gets a free kick too. More importantly, it softens the heart of the wronged.

In South Sudan, Chan is the referee, a bad one. He is literally sitting on justice, unleashing the dogs of injustice to maul the common man.

This has resulted in hostility and ethnic hatred against the Dinka, because some of us are taking other people’s lands and homes by force. retaliatory killings are rampant.

By miscarrying justice, Chan has greatly participated in the social disintegration in the country. And for the country to heal, he is one of the government leaders who must be disempowered and and severely punished.