It is not very often a sitting Prime Minister, let alone a caretaker Prime Minister, finds time in their busy schedule to write a letter-to-the-editor. 

But Samoa’s incumbent Tuilaepa Dr. Sa'ilele Malielegaoi has been a contributor to our letter-to-the-editor column twice in two months – which has to be a record of some sort for the office he occupies – amidst a constitutional crisis that he, himself, created while continuing to point the finger at everyone else. 

Nevertheless, our readers welcome his letter contributions, as it’s like having a direct line to the head of the Government and getting to know about the issues that matter to him and his administration.

In his latest contribution dated 14 July 2021 with the subject “Sacking of Chief Justice (CJ) and False Rumours”, the veteran politician takes aim at the Samoa Observer over our reporting of a letter dated 2 July 2021, which the Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P.) Secretary and Member-elect Lealaipule Rimoni Aiafi wrote to the Judicial Service Commission (J.S.C.) Secretary and Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration C.E.O. Moliei Simi Vaai.

Writing on behalf of the H.R.P.P. Lealai questioned the competency of the Chief Justice, His Honour Satiu Sativa Perese raising concerns about His Honour continuing to oversee election petitions filed against the party’s Members-elect.

But the caretaker Prime Minister, in his letter-to-the-editor on Wednesday, alluded to “a rumour your newspaper has created that this Government plans to dismiss the CJ.”

“Someone wrote to me today (July 13th) mentioning a rumour your newspaper has created that this Government plans to dismiss the CJ. This is news to me. Where did you pick up this kind of garbage? The F.A.S.T. leadership? It must be!”

The claim by the caretaker Prime Minister, that he heard “a rumour” by this newspaper of plans by the Government to remove the Chief Justice, is laughable when our story in the Thursday 8 July 2021 edition (H.R.P.P. moves against Chief Justice) outlines details of his party’s grievances in a letter that Leala himself signed.

For good measure, Leala even used an official party letterhead, but the outburst by his party leader in the letter-to-the-editor published makes one wonder whether Tuilaepa was even copied or privy to the 2 July 2021 correspondence to Moliei.

Or is this a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing within the once-dominant political party?

And two days letter Tuilaepa admits on radio 2AP on Thursday that his party wrote two separate letters to the JSC – the first letter on 2 July 2021 and the second on 14 July 2021 – so where was the rumour he alluded to in his letter-to-the-editor?

But not before, yet again, he launches into a tirade against the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and questions their interpretation of Article 44 of the Constitution relating to the 10 per cent women representation.

This is despite the Courts already putting forward as part of its ruling a roadmap for that provision of the Constitution to be invoked, following the conclusion of election petitions and the subsequent by-elections.

Tuilaepa’s continued ridiculing of the 24 May 2021 swearing-in by the Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (F.A.S.T.) and the questioning of the Court’s decision to revisit the principle of necessity – which his political rivals used to swear-in their Members-elect due to his caretaker Government’s decision to lock the Parliament in defiance of Court orders – are signs of a man in a state of confusion bereft of leadership qualities that the region and the world once looked up to.

The caretaker Prime Minister insults the intelligence of citizens every time he uses words like ‘parliamentary processes’ and the ‘Constitution of the Independent State of Samoa’, when he by his very actions rubbishes those words by trampling on the Constitution to push this nation further to autocracy.

If Tuilaepa hasn’t noticed, for the first time ever in our 59 year history, the use of the word ‘dictatorship’ by both local and international commentators to describe the current crisis is looking real and ominous.

But he probably doesn’t care what the people think, if his continued attacks on the esteemed membership of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal benches in recent weeks are any indication.

But the people do care about Samoa and its future direction and are beginning to stand up to Tuilaepa’s political rhetoric and manipulation.

Such as the villages of the Faletolu in the Gagaifomauga No.3 constituency as well as Gagaemauga No. 2 who have had enough of the power games. And more villages are stepping forward, we hear.

The Constitution, as espoused by the founders of this nation, belongs to the people and they know the guardians with the mandate to interpret this living document lies with the Courts and not one man.

As the 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln would say: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.”