Dear Editor,

Re: Does sacking a village mayor justify being called a dictatorship 

He has been taking over more and more areas of Samoa putting the power in his hands and lessening the power the people have. 

He can pass any laws he wants and can change the Constitution at will, and he does, because he has the majority in Parliament. 

He is concentrating all power into his hands. This is what he intended when he made the mayor position one that was answerable to the village, to a paid position that was answerable to him. 

Now he controls all power at the local level as well as at the state level. 

People don’t realize that when they allow so many members to run as H.R.P.P. members in the general election and when they elect one of these people they are giving the P.M. more power because they have no choice but to elect someone who gives the P.M. more power. 

They think they are electing someone who is representing them. 

This is not the case, because the P.M. is the head of the H.R.P.P. these H.R.P.P. M.P’s represent him if they have a majority of H.R.P.P. M.P’s in Parliament. 

This gives the P.M. absolute power. It is this coup in slow motion that the P.M. is using to transfer power from the fa’asamoa and the Matai system of governance to the concentration of power in to the hands of himself, the lawmaker. 

It is these facts that have given the P.M. power. This absolute power concentrated in the hands of one man is the definition of a dictator. 

This is what Samoa under Tuilaepa has become. 

The fact is that this concentration of power in the hands of the P.M. is that Samoa is no longer a democracy where the power resides in the people through the Matai system at the local level, or by having a real opposition at the state level to question the P.M. on their behalf. 

All the power the people had is now gone, and what happened in Luatuanuu where the people were accused, tried, convicted, and punished by the P.M. without due process is proof that Samoa is actually a dictatorship now and no longer a democracy.

Wendy Wonder