Do your job, Nu’u father reminds Parliamentarians

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 08 January 2018, 12:00AM

An elderly father from the village of Nu’u has a reminder for Members of Parliament.

Samuelu Tinoifili wants them to remember they were voted into power by the people so they can serve their needs, not to be selfish and greedy.

Mr. Tinoifili made the comments when his opinion was sought about the cost of living and the challenges of today.

The biggest issue he sees is the low incomes for many families.

“Everything is all about money nowadays, we have our children’s education and then our family on the other hand,” he said.

“All of these require money, but what I can see is that our people cannot afford it because we don’t have money to do all of these.

“I truly believe if the government is raising the cost of living, then they should also give the people a rise on their salaries so that it will balance out.

“They cannot expect the people to cope with this ridiculously expensive cost of living when the people get paid $150 fortnightly that is just ridiculous.

“If they cannot survive with $150 fortnightly, then how the heck do they expect the people to stretch that amount for two weeks?

“It’s just impossible.”

Mr. Tinoifili also slams the government for supporting foreign businesses when they should be supporting the locals.

“I always hear them saying the reason they have to increase the cost of living is because of the cost of freights and all these products being imported is gone up.

“But my question is who told to them to bring overseas products?

“Nobody, it’s them so they should be the one forking out money to pay for this, but not to involve the people in their mess.

“We never asked for any of these, we only asked for better lives, but what do we get, nothing.

“As a matter of fact we are suffering because of their wrongdoings.

“We have our own local people who can produce our own local products and that will help our local markets as well.

“We can even export it overseas we can do it.

“But what I notice is that the government supports the overseas markets rather than our own local markets.

“It’s like our people don’t exist and this saddens me a lot.”

Lastly Mr. Tinoifili urged the government to reconsider their developments for the sake of the people. 

“I urge you to please fix your environment before you look elsewhere,” he said.

“The people are what makes a country and we voted for you to be our leaders so at least prioritize our needs and fix our own environment before you can look elsewhere.”

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 08 January 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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