Every year, residents of Savaii flock to Upolu with their vehicles filled with mandarins. Yes, sweet mandarins, that earn some close to $5,000 a month for at least two to three months. The irony is that most of these plants are not even farmed.

For the last month or so, mandarins have been in abundance, selling for low prices that everyone can afford and providing the much-needed dietary supplements required by all, especially children who often are deprived of because of the high cost of imported fruits and the fact that there are barely any local fruits for sale most time.

For the Savaii residents who bring the mandarins, the fruits represent a steady flow of income that would carry most for at least four to six months. Provided they are not burdened by the demands of the churches and other family financial obligations. The mandarin situation also represents the situation our voters are now faced with. The season for promises is here. Voters will be told what they want to hear, and there will be many who will benefit from the position for a few months until the election is over.

Just like the mandarins, the votes have an expiry date. Once voting is over, the pickers or in this case, the politicians, become a rare sight. It will take another five years for many of the politicians to return to the villages and communities and utter promises that many want to hear. Some promises will be too good to be true, but voters will fall for those anyway. Many candidates will be like mandarin sellers. Their mandarins will be glowing orange, but once you peel them and have a taste, they are just sour. The hardest thing to accept is that people spend money to buy such mandarins.

Just like the promises and assurances made when some candidates come around asking for votes. People give them their votes, but they are left with sour citrus instead of the sweetness promised when purchasing them. After more than three decades of voting, it is hard to think that people fall for the same trick. In the case of mandarins, customers do not return to the seller who sold them sour fruits. However, in the case of politics, some voters keep returning to vote for someone who would only serve themselves.

Voters are just like customers who buy mandarins; some can spot the good ones, and some just fall for the sour ones. The ones who end up buying the good ones are the lucky ones, because they can enjoy the benefit of a good fruit. This is quite similar in politics, when you vote for a candidate who is true to the course, the benefits flow to the people he or she represents. That politicians strive to improve life for the communities, even if it is through district grants.

A good measure of how good the last parliamentarian has been would be the use of the district grants. The parliamentarian had at his disposal a million tala. Voters should ask themselves, ‘How was that used to improve lives?’ Did your last mandarin or politician leave behind a sour taste? Then, maybe it is time to choose another.

At the end of the day, if voters keep acting the same way they do every five years and not vote for the person best suited for the role, the nation will keep ending up with parliamentarians who will grow themselves and not the people they represent. If this cycle continues, we will always have sour-tasting mandarins.

Buy the sweet ones, that is the remark made when purchasing mandarin, perhaps the same advice should be given when voting. Do not vote for gifts and rewards, vote for someone who not only changes your life but also that of your children and their children. Now that’s a sweet mandarin.