Why government should not give to Duco

Dear Editor,

Duco Events, the promoter for Joseph Parker, is asking the Samoan govt for more money to sponsor Joseph Parker’s fight.

This time the people are watching PM Tuilaepa’s decision closely to see if he’s going to give more money to Joseph Parker after he refused to give a single penny to Samoa’s first Olympic medalist, Ele Oploge despite the people of this nation asking him repeatedly to do so.

PM Tuilaepa and H.R.P.P are yet to explain to the people exactly where they got the $280,000 Tala they gave last time for Joseph Parker’s fight.

Hear me out people – watch how PM Tuilaepa is going to come up with the biggest excuse to cover up his plan and money he’s going to give to Joseph Parkers fight. Also watch how the H.R.P.P members and the people get sucked into it – they’re good at it.

There were a lot of other Samoans who took Samoa to the top level of boxing and became world champions but they never received a penny from the govt unlike Joseph Parker who received over a quarter of a $Million Tala. Now that’s a very generous amount.

The question to PM Tuilaepa is this – Why was this man given a large sum of tax payers’ money when he is already making money for himself and his family? We’re not talking about $10s or $100s of thousands – we’re talking $Millions!

Yet when it came to Ele Opeloge who invested 1000s of hours of hard work into her training, sacrificed her family commitments to represent Samoa in the Olympics and won us a Silver Medal and made Samoa known throughout the world, she got nothing!

I’ll tell you right now – Joseph Parker is nowhere near the other Heavyweight champions of other belts eg WBC, WBA etc, that are around the world today – and he’s also not even ranked No. 1 in the world’s overall ranking.

So why did the New Zealand govt deny Duco’s request for sponsorship for Parker’s fight and then went as far as deny the visa for Fury’s father to enter NZ?

I know Peter Fury (Hughie Fury’s father) spent 10 years in jail for drug dealing and another two years for money laundering. Yet under NZ’s immigration laws they can still issue a visa despite their criminal record. 

Peter Fury was denied a “special direction” exemption which a visa for people who wish to gain entrance but have spent more than five years in prison. NZ govt is not stupid. They think how I think.

Professional boxing is a business. For the NZ govt to spend money on sponsorship for Parker is no different to a govt putting money in to sponsor a private business. Well, Duco Events, the promoter, is also a private business.

Duco Events is thinking the taxpayers’ money is a bank for them to ask the govt to sponsor Joseph Parker’s fight – that’s a big NO – NO!

It’s also a big NO - NO for PM Tuilaepa to spend taxpayers’ money to sponsor his relative. 

For this reason, the Cabinet should reject any request from P.M. Tuilaepa for more funds to sponsor this fight on the 6th of May.

We all like boxing. We also want Parker to do well just like how we want other Samoan sportspeople to do well too. But you got to be honest and be fair and do the right thing by the taxpayers and PM Tuilaepa must stop playing favouritism as favouritism is a form of corruption.

The fool is asking every citizen for another 2.5 sene (which I find stupid and uneducated) yet he is wasting money frivolously as if it grows on trees.

 

Mepaelo

Samoa Observer

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