Corruption starts below

Dear Editor

Re: How Samoa can move forward

It ís an old cliche but changes comes when you can empower individual thinking. Especially during elections.

The corruption in Samoa ends at the highest seat in government, but it starts at villages - the chiefs, mayor and church leaders.

They are the first step or layer of corruption. They protect the next layer and so on.

Until villagers can vote as an individual without fear of being banned from their home/land, the status quo continues. Elections are about individuals. In the U.S, the Electoral College vote decides its president, but it’s free individual votes that decide the final tally.

Our democratic process is made of High Chiefs. Whichever candidate the High Chief favors, the village must favor even if they don’t believe in the candidate.

We may consider ourselves a democratic country, but the true reality is that we are under a dictatorship. Until the first layer of corruption is addressed, we as a nation fail to move forward.

T. Leone

Samoa Observer

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