Seiuli declines to address Malie concerns

By Tina Mata'afa-Tufele 15 May 2020, 1:00PM

Member of Parliament Seiuli Ueligitone Seiuli has refused to respond to an appeal by the mayor of Malie village, for more information on three bills that proposes major structural changes to the Judiciary including the Land and Titles Court (L.T.C.).

The Malie village mayor, Fa’amausili Auimatagi Siona Tauafao, early in the week appealed to the Government as well as their local MP Seiuli for more information on the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020, Lands and Titles Court Bill 2020 and the Judicature Bill 2020.

The village of Malie is part of Sagaga le Usoga, which is the district that the MP represents in the nation’s lawmaking body.

Seiuli attended a groundbreaking ceremony of the new Samoa National Provident Fund (S.N.P.F.) building in Savai’i on Thursday afternoon.

He was approached for comment by Samoa Observer but Seiuli declined to comment.

Fa’amausili told the Samoa Observer on Wednesday that Seiuli should front up before the village to explain the bills.

The MP was invited to Malie’s village meeting on Monday, the Mother’s Day public holiday, but he did not attend. The village is keen to have access to documents and a detailed explanation on the proposed laws.

Seiuli “should have come to the village and helped to clarify the bills to the village council,” said Fa’amausili.

Due to the lack of information, the L.T.C. Bills have been placed on the agenda for the next monthly meeting on 8 June, 2020.

The Government has provided no documents to the village and Malie neither opposes nor supports the bills.

“There are no documents…the government has provided no documents to the village,” said Fa’amausili. “The government should distribute papers to us so we can read it…[and] we need papers from the Law Society too so we can read them.”

Seiuli has been invited to Malie’s 8 June meeting, said the village mayor.

This is very important and that is why they [the government] need to visit the villages…this is exactly what we need," Fa'amausili said. 

"That is what they should be doing if they cannot come then our Member of Parliament should come and inform us of what the government wants and then we can provide our thoughts."

The S.O.E. orders have not helped matters in terms of explaining what these bills mean with social distancing rules restricting the convening of such meetings.

"We are still on restrictions due to the pandemic so we can only have one meeting per month," he said.

"Our village usually has two meetings per month. The government has given us only one meeting per month. So when we get there this is one matter we will discuss in the village council meeting…[we have] invited Seiuli to the meeting…he could not attend the meeting and he apologized so we have told him our [next] meeting will take place on the eighth of June."

By Tina Mata'afa-Tufele 15 May 2020, 1:00PM

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