Where the law fails the truth

Dear Editor,

Re: “This is where we belong. This land is our grave.”

This is a case where the law fails the truth. 

I say nothing of justice Clark who’s a young man who only reads a piece of paper in front of him so I don’t blame him. 

I blame the late PM Mataafa whom I was told was a man of his word, better then signed documents, better then evidence or any legal document. 

A case where our education betrayed what is right. 

A case we are all ashamed of, that creed has triumph over reason and decency. 

This is a case we all love to see in a movie where a young lawyer against all olds speaks the voice of justice louder then a corporate corrupt system. Unfortunately, the reality in this movie is that the bad guys end up triumphant because there are no good guys to rescue the cause.

This is a case we’re all aware of, of development and relocation of an entire community so that a waterfront dream development is unopposed, disguised under a thread of tsunami.

Justice would’ve have been partially served if these people were given land to relocate to and cost of relocation instead they’ll have to work again and again to pay for their new land and to move at their own cost. 

All of a sudden the justice system stopped half way through without addressing the issues of relocation. Is there justice in the justice system? Perhaps, with a big question mark????

I grew up with these people and their children. Went fishing with them years ago at the back swamp and eat oka (aua) with their children. 

Though my assessment maybe clouded by personality connections a big question mark still hangs over the bottom line issue of who benefits from this move and whether the justice system addressed this bottom line. If this was a you/me case, shouldn’t we be concern of which party’s gonna benefit from our lose and was this revealed in this legal dealings. 

The samoan saying of the wise, ‘e asa le faiva ae asa le masalo’, holds true in all counts of this case and neither the court nor the entire legal system can dispute that. 

The blindfolded lady holding the scales cheated and peaked at where the rich were seating in this case.

Was there a case like this in the records? 

A man was going to be hanged for a crime he didn’t commit and was gonna cost him his life and there is not a record of it in the system? Unbelievable! We have records of the first palagi that discovered these islands in 1722. If there is records of what Tokuma was saying, and the event actually happened then benefit of the doubt should support his case because this is a story that cannot be manufactured. 

If nothing exists which I doubt very much then follow the money man. Money always has a way of corrupting itself, yet we are hell bound by legal hooha and lose sight of the bottom line issue.

Anyways, to paraphrase the words of King Solomon, ‘if justice is denied to the simple, I will be their lawyer’ says the Lord God of Host. 

Their sweat and their blood will speak from the ground summoned from heaven.

 

Steve 

Samoa Observer

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