Dear Editor,

I had to laugh at the government’s response issued through the Press Secretariat.

The arrogance and totalitarian attitude shown by the Prime Minister on the Australian 60 Minutes programme does not surprise me at all. His PR cronies trying to tell us only a couple of minutes were shown and quoted is ridiculous as even Stevie Wonders can see that from a mile out in a dark moonless night! Who are you kidding? 

You should have chosen your words wisely while you were being interviewed, don't come crying now and saying the prime minister's comment were edited or misquoted.

Can't you brief him on PR and Media etiquettes before his press and media interviews and appearances? Oh, my bad, - you can't do that to a dictator! My apologies to the PM's press advisors.

I was half expecting him during the interview to call the 60 minutes interviewer a "stinking pig", "kokemi", "stupid", "running out of ideas to sell his program", amongst other bulling tactics he had used on the Samoa Observer, the people of Samoa, Mr Campbell from NZL, and the rest of the Samoan media in the past. 

My heart goes out to the people who run this beautiful resort and any person who runs a tourist related business outside town as the prime just single handedly killed your business in comments beamed around the world on 60 Minutes by basically saying Samoa is not safe for tourists! 

The tourists shouldn't be there, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time! (For God's sake - they were in a tourist resort of all places). He further put another nail in the coffin by saying; the Australian couple should be staying in one of the many places in town. 

Mr. Prime Minister, you could have been the last resort to redeem Samoa and it's struggling tourist industry out of this horrible mess using 60 Minutes as your pulpit - how much are you paying your media and PR people to work for you? Questions must be asked, they are either unqualified relatives and friends (why they are there in the first place in your office), underpaid and only giving you what you paid for, or you just don't want to listen to what they say. Some food for thoughts....

People (all non-Samoans) I know started texting me during the 60 Minutes programme, and when I went to work the next day. What can I say.... Even during the programme I started sending tweet messages to the Samoa Observer to express my anger and frustration as some anger from my childhood times just surfaced again regarding these damn escaped prisoners.

Back in the early 80s, some scumbag who cowardly murdered my dad by gunshot, was sentenced to life imprisonment at the very same Tafa'igata resort prison (with a joke of a fence to keep public out only" was amongst a bunch of scums that broke out, robbed, brought the country to a standstill, killed a policeman amongst other things they did. The very same fence is still there and prisoners are still going out at will and hacked, rob, rape, fly to Australia, - it's a disgrace and a shame.

Thank you Samoa Observer to allowing me to show and air my displeasure.

As for the dictator Prime Minister, he may not even give a flying f... on what I have to say as he doesn't abide by PR101 (That is very ironic for a Samoan matai - which we abide by public relations known as fa'aaloalo). 

Oh by the way, wasn't he (Tuilaepa) the same guy back in the late 90s that commented that "us Samoans living overseas shouldn't poke our noses in stuff happening back in Samoa, as the reason why we don't live in Samoa is we sick and tired of tautua and serving.... - was when the matter of allowing Samoans overseas to vote from overseas in Samoan general election was debated. Someone refresh my memory again please?

This was quickly typed with raw emotions and anger, Samoa faamagalo se sese o le auauna. Manuia le aso.

Melb Wils