It’s a complete farce

Dear Editor,

I fully agree with T. Samataua’s as well Le Mafa P’s letters to the Editor of the Sunday Observer of 6th March 2016 regarding the the consequences of electing the HRPP government to rule this small nation and its aftermath. I sincerely see this Election as a farce – from the start.

The result will of course have a serious impact on the future of our children and this country.

To begin with, if the Tautua Party’s claim can be proven correct, as in a TV news broadcast the H.R.P.P has not followed the routine legal procedures in the setup of legal entities in Samoa, then in my opinion l sincerely also see the H.R.P.P as illegal, designed to defraud this nation of any goodness left therein.

I believe Mr. Editor, businesses and organizations have been closed and discontinued operating because of failure to pay due licenses, penalties or even fallen short of filing the necessary reports on times they are required. 

Yet this H.R.P.P organization has been flourishing despite not doing all these things since 1986 and even up to now. It means it should have been banned and already ceased to exist, OR is it because they are the government, and they are free to do as they like? 

I think they have been law makers since that time, but they are again the law. 

And what is the registrar of companies doing if this was so, or this department has fallen victim of the ongoing corruption, and could not be assisted on the flow of current wicked dealings.

A regime that does not allow issues of paramount significance for a debate are of course a government led by a supreme dictator. And in my opinion we have seen that a lot of times lately in particular recent amendments in the electoral act.

And they have brought about and interpreted the House Rules of Parliament to suit their personal intentions as in greed and excessive desire for supreme authority.

So many stories are floating around about H.R.P.P’s success in the March 4th General Election, but I for one cannot accept most of them as true and correct even with the PM’s comments. 

There are laws and policies that are in my opinion, government has contradicted and going against itself, as well laws and policies that have not been explicitly explained perhaps to put the public in a situation of oblivion thus putting them in a state of indetermination i.e they cannot decide which is which. 

And this was the result of the majority of the many amendments of the laws rushed through Parliament during this year’s proroguing and final session before the 2016 general election.

The Tautua Party alleged that there was a lot of money exchanged by candidates involved to entice voters in their favor. I have no objection to that allegation, bearing in mind in my opinion, they are used to it and I think they don’t care anymore. 

The fact is though these allegations were proven in court in previous elections, there were no criminal charges made, apart from those who lost in these allegations lost the election. 

Thus it appears like a campaign strategy. They have too much money to give away by way of salaries as associate ministers and allowances on overseas trips plus their give away cash during every new election funded by the public as I understand through the 3% of the total budget passed by Parliament and on which they are not accountable. .

The post of Pulenuu should never have been part of the registration process of election candidates. This post in the past was meant to be for governments to get in touch with village communities. 

However, in not so distant events, a number of them had their salaries withheld because they do not listen and do not do what government wants, as one letter to the editor puts it, they are paid by government and as one former minister of the Pulenuu office said “they are there to follow and do what governments command”. 

But even that, the words of the Devil in the film Armageddon has indeed seemed proven rightly applicable to “those who follow the Devils ways is to do with the satisfaction of the belly”.

The Samoa Observer article, VILLAGE BANISHES FORMER MINISTER is of course a CLASSIC CHALLENGE to the Laws now ruling this country. 

It is of my opinion that the majority of the laws passed and has become law in Parliament went through without proper consultation of the traditions and the cultural aspects affecting them as was the understanding of the public and as was the usual acknowledgement by the government department concerned, ie the Ministry of Justice and Court Administration. 

And this is where the question of Monotaga comes in. In my opinion the question of MONOTAGA should have been properly defined before it becomes law and should never have been part of the Electoral Act. 

As a Samoan, we were all born and brought up in the Samoan traditional system and we know how the monotaga works. In fact the working of the monotaga differs from village to village based on their own communal traditions and cultural values. Matai titles also differs from village to village and their community share in village affairs are not equal, apart from the fact of community decisions, in fact anyone who is bestowed a matai title will be part of that decision making but not all of them folks out for a monotaga, it will primarily and heavily laid on the shoulders of those who do the tautua even some matais of certain villages do that while also forking out for his monotaga. 

Though it sounds somewhat cruel, however it’s tradition in a number of villages where you have the PAPA as in Sili and the village of Gataivai as well many other villages where the word paramount chief or orator are always referred to. 

I am confident there are still members both past and the present Parliament who are fully aware of this but because of Party Affiliation they just cannot speak up and those are the Judas the Betrayers in Parliament. It must also be noted that government has laws, as well as villages and communities, which law is more powerful, that’s something else, but one thing is certain, if villages and communities do not support government law, they are useless. 

 

So we still need villages and communities to uphold and respect government law.

It is therefore irrelevant to include the word Monotaga as part of the Electoral Act, it is against Traditional Samoa, and it looks as if it was put in the Act as a dirty tactic to avoid some matais to run as election candidates and that’s pure fraud and deceit. On the question that all appointments are from God it is of my opinion that’s a theological decision that needs proper discussion. Because if it is true that all appointments are from God, then the appointment of Adolf Hitler to lead

Germany who became the cause of the murder of six million Jews, as well as the killing of thousands of citizens by Muamar Gadaffi of Libya and Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Bashar Al Assad of Syria as well as many others in Latin America and world wide, are all allowed and ordered by God making the Almighty a murderer.

But of course I do agree that all appointments are from God, but only when we do the will of God not the will of men. As our Lord has taught us to pray, “Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” It is of course imperative that we go back and find out how God called two of the most popular people as his servants and the only way to do that is find out from the Bible. God called Saul who was later and better known as Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles, then there is the call of Moses to lead Israel out of the bondage of Egypt. 

Both began in the fact the two were made blind i.e. in my opinion they were both blinded to the madness and the consequences of corruption. The fact was, there were visual signals preceding to these calls like as was in any other call made by God in the Bible.

My question is Mr Editor “did we have visual signals preceding this General Election?” The right answer is a “BIG NO”. That’s besides SAMOA OBSERVER exposing all kinds of Corruption at almost all levels of government but nothing was done to it. For all the reasons stipulated and said above the GENERAL ELECTION OF 2016 IS A COMPLETE FARCE RIGHT FROM THE START. I THANK YOU SAMOA OBSERVER FOR ALL THE INFORMATION YOU HAVE GIVEN SO ALL THE SAMOANS COULD BE WELL VERSED OF WHAT THIS GOVERNMENT IS DOING WITH THEIR MONEY. GOD BLESS YOU ALL. 

 

Iteli M. Tiatia. 

Lalomanu, Aleipata.


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