The former justice minister of South Sudan has denied authoring an article criticizing the country’s constitution, saying the problem in South Sudan is not lack of a good constitution but rather “abuse and disregard” of the current constitution.

Ex-minister John Luk says South Sudan lacks a culture of respect for the constitution: “It is one thing to have a Constitution and quite a different thing to instill the culture of constitutionalism in the minds of those responsible for its implementation – the political elite.”

He added, “The problem in South Sudan is not lack of good constitution. It is the abuse and disregard of the constitution and the laws that we have enacted.”

This comes after the publication of an article in Luk’s name, titled “The Magok Rundial of Today are the John Luk of Tomorrow,” on a South Sudanese blog site.

The article purported to express John Luk’s personal regret for having been involved in the constitution-making process ahead of South Sudan’s 2011 independence, while linking this issue to a critique of the new National Security Bill, which was backed by the Assembly Speaker Magok Rundial.

In the article, John Luk supposedly admits responsibility for inclusion of “tyrannical clauses” in the draft constitution, intimidating MPs who opposed it, and “bulldozing” the draft constitution into law. 

But the former justice minister denies writing this article. “That article was not written by me,” he said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday.

He said he did not know who the author was and he stressed that writing under someone else’s name is “simply immoral, fraudulent and criminal in nature.”

John Luk Jok noted that the fraudulent author had even misspelled his last name as “Joak,” noting that this pronunciation is common among the Nuer people. This suggests that the real author is probably a dissident who is ethnically Nuer.

The former minister said he is ready to accept constructive criticism for mistakes he may have made while in public office but stressed, “The Constitution is certainly not one of any such mistakes if any.”

He referred to one of the most common criticisms of the constitution that he helped draft, that the president is vested with too much power. He said this criticism has “little justification if any,” noting that the constitution also includes provisions meant to constrain any abuse of power.

John Luk said the problem now is not lack of constitutional constraints but rather weak institutions that “suffer from the ills of patronage, tribalism, clientielism, clanism and lack of respect of the rule of law.”