Government urged to stay on their lane

By Sarafina Sanerivi 12 January 2017, 12:00AM

A chief from the village of Lufilufi has some advice for the government.

While Magele Lene appreciates the hard work they are doing, he wants them to slow down and consider the impact of some of the developments on people.

Aged 55, the village mayor of the village of Lufilufi believes that our future generation will suffer if we don’t do anything about it now. 

He told the Village Voice that the government is interfering a lot with issues within villages and families in Samoa. 

“God chose matais to look after and take care of Samoa. Not our government,” said Magele. “This is worrying me because our government is interfering with a lot of things in our country. 

“And the way I see it, if we continue this, it is not going to end well.” 

He went on to say that our government should look at this very careful. 

“The government should never interfere with the authority of the matais within the villages and families. 

“The way I see it, it seems like our government is trying to control our families, villages and everything in Samoa. 

“Sometimes it looks like they are interfering with the decision making in our families. 

 “But we have high chiefs; they are the ones responsible for taking care of our families and especially with the decision makings.

“The truth is, if the government interferes with the decisions within families, it will break families apart.”

Magele makes it clear he doesn’t have anything against the government. 

However, he is just voicing his own opinion about what he think is wrong in Samoa nowadays.

“To me, our government is not doing anything bad. It’s just that sometimes they cross the line and they go overboard,” he said.

“The other thing I don’t like is the abuse of power. Just because they are running the government doesn’t mean that they can do whatever they want. That is so unfair.”

He believes that if this continues, then we need to change the Constitution.

“Our country is founded on God. But if this behavior continues, then we really need to change this Constitution. 

“What is worrying me is our future generation. I worry for them and I feel sorry for them. I don’t want to grow up in an environment where authority is being abused. 

“There will be no unity and our children will suffer. And this is something we need to change.”

By Sarafina Sanerivi 12 January 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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