By Dak Buoth Riek Gaak
On 25th December 2024, I did not attend the Christmas Prayer mass as usual due to unavoidable circumstances.
Also, my cell phone was off. Immediately I came online, I found numerous calls and SMS from friends and community members, who informed me that Honorable Mathew Mathiang Deang Baziel has died of cholera in Bentiu, Unity State.
I equally called a few people before we joined the family and friends in mourning the passing of this pioneer Law Maker, who has served as the first elected MP since 2010.
This sorrowful news is so devasting to South Sudan, particularly because, it came barely a week, after the passing away of Unity State’s elder son, late Dr. Stephen Abraham, whom the SSPM’s De-facto and de-jure leader, Dr. Costello Garang Riny Lual described, in his eulogy as an eloquent scholar and eminence expert in systems of governance.
This uninvited death has not only shaken, but it has also attempted to uprooted the roots of Liech Community and Nuer community as a whole following the fall of this great sons of the soil.
The late honorable Mathew is the community advocate and defender both at home and abroad his political allegiance and affiliation notwithstanding.
During his tenure as a Chairperson of Unity State Parliamentary caucus, late Mathiang worked hard to make sure the Unity State oil percentage are not only allocated and accounted for, but also given to the rightful owners without delay.
On 2023, he came to Nairobi to witness and preside over the South Sudan Liech Community Leadership handing-over. I learned the late honorable Mathiang is among the environmental activists with a court case between the Norwegian’s Ludin oil companies and Unity State communities.
Prior to the above-mentioned swearing-in, we lengthily discussed the ways and means of conducting the public participation about the Ludin case.
We talked and went as far as contacting his co-petitioner Rt. Reverand James Kuong Ninrew on how to hold a conference in Nairobi with Rt. Rev. James Kuong as a Guest speaker. Unfortunately, my tenure and term in office came to a closed month after.
On that very day, he shared with us some insightful and informative stories including how they founded the South Sudan Liech Community Association in Kenya, where he later became the first Chairperson in the hotly contested election against the Late Reverend George Riek Kuithoiy in 1993. May their souls rest in eternal peace.
The late Mathiang was always very humble and generous with time. I knew this when I informed and invited him to the two community functions dedicated to unity state students in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Unlike others, he does not care whether or not he was a Chief Guest in those occasions.
The late Mathiang’s articulate representations of community affairs are evidence. The brave elders namely late Gabriel Yol Dok and Late Mathew Mathiang have said time and again that they would sue the South Sudan regime over the mass killing of 400, 000 Nuer in Juba when time for trail come. If the Heaven do exist, I’m certain that the duo will continue to carry the torch of Human Rights before God in Heaven.
On 20 November 2024, late Mathiang was among the Unity State National MPs, who petitioned the National Minister of Petroleum Puot Kang Chol, asking for the Vice President position of Oil company, SPOC to be given to Gabriel Gatkuoth Tekjiek, who hail from the Southern Part of Unity State as was earlier agreed with SPOC.
Regrettably, he died soon after his invitation to Bentiu by Unity State Governor H.E Justice Riek Bim Too allegedly on the pending SPOC Vice President issue.
In view of the foregoing, I would like to categorically state, that the sudden death of late Mathew Mathiang deserves an urgent investigation not just to unearth the circumstances of his abrupt invitation in the wake of cholera outbreak, but also to ascertained whether or not, there was any error, including but not limited to possible laxity, in calling and hiring a plane, to carry him back to the capital Juba where he could be afforded medication given his advanced age of 76 years.
Finally, the call to carry out the investigation on the untimely death of late Mathew Mathiang should not be misconstrued to mean that I am preempting or pointing blaming fingers. In fact, anyone who think so would also be preempting, even thought there’s nothing wrong with that.
In 2005, after the late Dr. John Garang visited Uganda on invitation of his longtime friend, President Yoweri Museveni, we heard and saw that the late South Sudan leader Dr. John Garang De Mabior died in a plane crash due to bad weather, however we still went ahead to demand thorough investigation, which we did.
The Writer is National Chairperson of Legal and Constitutional Affairs of the South Sudan People’s Movement (SSPM); Unity State community Chairperson (K) 2018-2023; and he can be reached for comments via eligodakb@yahoo.com
