Dear Editor,

The current case between Laauli Leauatea Polataivao and his own political party (H.R.P.P.) reveals some shocking discoveries of real issues about the by-laws of the H.R.P.P.

That is, the handling of Laauli’s ‘no’ vote against the H.R.P.P by the H.R.P.P is not a justification of that political party’s purpose and name – Human Rights Protection Party. It is the real example of the failure of the H.R.P.P. to protect the rights and freedom, and the protection of the Constitution of Samoa.

What seems to be very clearly from a news article by Samoa Observer of 06 February 2019 (P.M. adamant Laauli sacked himself) is that the binding agreement established by the H.R.P.P. for its members is focusing mainly on one target and expectation to be accomplished from its members by force. In other words, the binding agreement is focusing mainly on supressing of rights and freedom so that the H.R.P.P. can easily secure only a ‘yes’ vote. 

So the very big question that should be asking right there is this. What about the ‘no’ vote according to the rights and freedom of Members of Parliament in the H.R.P.P. and their ‘no’ vote according to the voices of their constituencies? Can someone from the H.R.P.P. answer that question from the Constitution of Samoa? Does the Constitution of Samoa let the H.R.P.P or any political party to dictate the rights and freedom of its members when it comes to the casting of their ‘yes’ and ‘no’ votes?

Apart from Laauli, all other members of the H.R.P.P. are still following that mess by the founding members of the H.R.P.P. They are still standing up together as one against the truth that Laauli stands up for. Amazingly, not one of them including their leader has been able to indicate anything reflecting an application of the name and purpose of the H.R.P.P. and a justification from the Constitution in order to prove to Samoa that what Laauli and his constituency are standing up for is wrong.

Remember, the H.R.P.P. is not a constituency. Therefore I believe, the people who drafted the by-laws of the H.R.P.P. intentionally and politically drafted those laws to benefit only the H.R.P.P. and to destroy the Constitution of Samoa. That means, they did not follow our Constitution because they did not care about the founding fathers and our democracy. So all I can say about those by-laws is just a bunch of blabbing that does not fit in any procedures of democracy and the protection of our rights and freedom.

Targeting of just the ‘yes’ vote means they did not care about democracy procedures; the actual fundamental principles to be followed by members of the H.R.P.P. when a member decides to vote otherwise according to their rights and freedom and according to the voices of their constituencies. That is the truth about protection of rights and freedom within the same political party without affecting of memberships. That is democracy.

Just recently in the United States of America, there were four members of the Republican Party who voted against the tax legislation of their own party and there was no problem with it. But before that vote on a different event, the late Senator John McCain did the same to his Republican Party. He voted against the Republican’s legislation to repeal and replace the Obamacare. It was tough with President Donald Trump and other Republicans however it did not change anything about the respectful way they accustomed of treating those other members with high honour and with great respect because it is understandable in democracy, those other members are entitle to cast a ‘no’ vote according to their rights and freedom. That is the truth about democracy. 

Sadly, here in Samoa and its democracy regarding the same type of event, is a different story. Laauli became the victim in his own party because he did the right thing according to his Constitutional rights and freedom of casting a ‘no’ vote against his own party, the H.R.P.P. Over the course of the last three weeks or so, Laauli became unrest trying to defend the truth and to defend himself from verbal harassments by the leadership of the H.R.P.P. That form of harassment is an act of discrimination towards Laauli and his constituency.

I see no one from the H.R.P.P takes as a commitment the organising of a proper investigation to find out the real truth. The only thing they are committed on is driving Laauli crazy, weakening of Laauli and ousting of Laauli. Fortunately, Laauli has already proven himself as the wisest and the strongest out of that very sad situation. He did not consider that situation as the end of him. He took it as an important opportunity to fight back in order to save our country, our Constitution, our rights and our freedom from the hands of the H.R.P.P.

That brave decision by Laauli is his great escape from darkness he has been stuck in for many years. He was fooled by those by-laws. As a result of the great escape, Laauli is now looking stronger than ever before. His other source of strength is his constituency.  

Because he did the right thing of listening to his constituency, he has been energised intensely by the support of his constituency.

Furthermore, the other meaning of Laauli’s brave decision to me is the returning of Samoa to the right direction and keeping Samoa to that direction. Without doubt, Samoa now-days is no longer as safe as it used to be because she is heading to the wrong direction. That is, Samoa is heading into radical equalitarianism type of society because of the plans and some of the new unconstitutional legislations by the H.R.P.P.

Therefore, I admire Laauli and his constituency of Gagaifomauga No. 3 for being brave to speak for the truth and for taking a stand for our Constitution, our rights and our freedom regardless of the consequences.

Our freedom is a tremendous free gift we earn from others’ sacrifices starting from the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. That freedom is under great threat because people in power like those of the leadership of the H.R.P.P. use the opportunities of freedom to destroy freedom for their own political gains and other purposes. The sufficiency of the freedom that Christ paid the price for, for us, was / is not enough with them.

The framers of our Constitution prevent our freedom and our rights in the constitution but the H.R.P.P. blew it up. That situation takes me back again to founding members of the H.R.P.P. especially those who established the by-laws. They abuse the power they earned from the people of Samoa. They are lawbreakers. They broke our Constitution and Standing Orders of Parliament in the first place. 

They planted their own seed outside of our Constitution which led to their unconstitutional by-laws that became legal in our system and serves as cover-up for other future mistakes. As a result of their initial mistakes, our whole system of government has been already contaminated by it. 

That’s the reason why all members of the H.R.P.P. have one thing in common. They all excuse. They are uninterrupted and they are not subject to the ramification of their own ideologies. Most of the people of our country who have not been aware of that very sad situation, they view the H.R.P.P. and whatever they do as the truth and they are comfortable with it. 

I’ve been writing substantially on this newspaper about the unconstitutionality of some of the main legislations by the H.R.P.P such as the LTRA 2008, new taxation law to tax Church Ministers, some of the amendments already done to the Constitution and the Cabinet Handbook 2011. Not only that, I also provided justifications of what I have been arguing for from those legislations and the Constitution of Samoa. 

That’s the alarm. The unconstitutionality of those laws is alerting us about the H.R.P.P’s mission or the real tendency of the H.R.P.P. It is turning out now according to the current case of Laauli and the H.R.P.P. that what I have been writing about is absolutely true. 

If there is no one can stand up in a responsible manner and in a respectful way through election to stop the H.R.P.P, then radical equalitarianism can easily and quickly transform Samoa into socialism. It pushes democracy and Christianity to the edges leaving no more rooms for our democracy and our God but just socialism.

That type of transformation is already happening to our country and that’s the main reason why the H.R.P.P is facing a substantial resistance from Samoans overseas who are feeding them every day with remittances and paying Samoa’s debt with remittances.  

Ma lo’u faaaloalo tele lava,

Nanai Malonuu Lealaiauloto Nofoaiga