E pala le ma’a ‘ae le pala le tala

Rocks rot but words do not

Friday’s parliamentary debate on the First Supplementary Estimates briefly became interesting and somewhat surprising when Opposition Leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, in winding up the debate, commented on his then Cabinet’s decision in 1984 to have departmental heads attend parliament and mentioned the assassination of one of his ministers.

He was about to comment further when the Speaker called the break for morning tea.

 I say interesting because the decision to have the ‘brains of the government’ sit there to observe, listen and record, the often, repetitive requests for better plantation roads, better sea walls, more teachers, more doctors, etcetra, etcetra, when that was all done by minsters’ private secretaries and much junior officers for the first quarter century of Cabinet government, was viewed by some as a very long coffee break for these most senior officers and thus a waste of human resources.

The mention of the minister’s assassination was surprising as one would think that the shame of that event for the HRPP (Human Rights Protesting Party, as the TIMES named it after the law was changed to sack the Controller and Chief Auditor) and Samoa, would be the last thing that the HRPP would want to talk about.

As a close observer of our parliamentary debates; first as a minister’s private secretary, and then as the senior interpreter-translator in the House for some five years and as acting private secretary to the then prime minister, the Hon.Fiame Mata’afa Mulinu’u II, for another few years, and then as a reporter for the next twenty (20) years, I have been a witness to the deterioration of the debates over that long period.

I was under the ‘Post’ of the old ‘Maota Fono’, the Samoan Fale, when the oratory and logic of the Hon. Pilia’e Iuliano, destroyed the motion to lease customary land to untitled persons, when more than half the House had spoken in support. It was the best political speech I’ve ever heard.

It was a pleasure to listen to the flow of speeches by Asiata Lagolago, Toluono Lama, Tofilau Eti, Tupuola Efi, and others, over the years before the age of Tuilaepa and the HRPP and their constant interruption of speeches by members.

I am not alone in that unfavourable assessment of the HRPP time in power.

Some time ago, L.V.Letalu of Lalomanu had this to say:     

The sad – though often hush hush, if not connived and concocted reality of Samoa’s political system is that it is a collage of mostly anti-democratic practices and machinations.

So while paying lip-service to democratic ideals and principles, Samoa is actually incubating a unique and possibly and ominous – ‘polytical’ system. She may also be trying to create and develop a cultural democracy of her own, however, with the current system imbued with the above anti-democratic elements, Samoa’s future political system is likely to engender and generate coups, violent protests, uprising and revolts.

Samoa of course has successfully revolted against foreign rulers but will we revolt  

against our own chosen leaders? We have in the past; will we do so again? Not if we stick to the Rule of Law.

The danger that L.V.Letalu talks about above, remote as it may seem, is still frightening because it has been envisaged by developments that the previous administration had considered necessary. How the administration of justice was supposed to improve by having a two-headed judiciary instead of just one Chief justice, has never been explained.

Those changes to the Constitution are still in place and must be changed.

In the meantime, it is pleasing to see a slight change of tone in the debates. It is impossible to get back to the days when members had had their say uninterrupted by Cabinet and the Speaker. Those were the days of the old Maota Fono, the pre-party system time.

With the emergence of the HRPP, the supporter of the great Strike of 1981 by public servants, things changed for ever.

Was the Cabinet decision of 1984 to give the long coffee break to department heads a perk of their support for getting the HRPP into power?

It is highly unlikely that the HRPP would ever admit that it had an obligation to reward the depleted Public Service Association (PSA) for its part in the 1982 election but would no doubt insist to be judged on their performance in power.  

It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.

That was how an American politician viewed the goals of government actions.

Is this government on its way there? I’m not yet in a position to judge; but I’m taking note whether they are measuring up to what the former prime minister of Bangladesh, Khaled Zia, set as the standard for her politics:

It is impossible to practice parliamentary politics without having patience, decency and courtesy.

Is that what Samoa’s parliamentary politics are practicing?