One of the many cliches about fatherhood is that its most overwhelming impact on our lives is felt as we begin it; the cause to rejoice that overjoys us with the arrival of our offspring.

In truth, for many it comes much later; the surge of feelings that accompany new parenthood, while overwhelming, are dealt with naturally by many new parents.

It is many years down the track, when our children have reached maturity and are striking out on their own (or should be) that many parents face the difficult but necessary step of letting our children take the unguided steps to grow and begin the next phase of life’s journey. 

Here, many fathers face their biggest challenges; struggling with feelings of a lack of purpose at perhaps the most important stage of our jobs as creating fully formed  and responsible adults. 

The former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, has previously liked to style himself as the ‘father of the nation’.

Politically speaking, for many Samoans he is just that. We are a young country. 

His administration reigned over Samoa for more than 22 years. The average age of a Samoan, according to the latest available data to bureau of statistics analysis of census data is less than 21.5 years old.

That means most Samoans are not accustomed to seeing another face occupying the Prime Minister’s chair.

Whether his statements of being the nation’s father have an air of grandiosity about them, it is clear that this is a man whose voice cuts through political debate in Samoa; for better or for worse, he looms large over almost every aspect of public administration in this country.

It took more than 100 days for Tuilaepa to accept the simple fact that he had lost a democratic election and began moving out of Government offices. 

But since that time has he acted like a man who has come to grips with his loss of not only power but relevance?

He has not. And the evidence is patently clear. 

In the last week alone, he has organised four car convoys and protest marches against the nation’s judiciary. 

In what amounts to obvious defamation and is revealed on the front page of the Weekend Observer (“Tuilaepa’s baseless slur against C.J.”) he has continued to cast about accusations about the nation’s judges that are grounded neither in fact nor reason. 

He already has a contempt of court matter hanging over his head. But it is our opinion that Tuilaepa has long since crossed the line of treating this nation’s judiciary contemptuously; he has opened them to scorn and with his fire starting rhetoric left them open to the very real possibility of violence. 

As we have pointed out on this page before, the numbers of disaffected Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P.) who show up to these rallies make up a tiny fraction of the nation’s population. 

And as we have seen in recent history around the world all it takes is for violence to occur is one lunatic to prick up his ears at the sound of extreme and inflammatory rhetoric. We pray that does not happen in this instance. 

But we should not have to. 

Tuilaepa’s campaign against the judiciary is based on a willful misreading of the constitution.

His claims that the Head of State is at the apex of Samoa’s political system and unencumbered by the restrictions of law is absurd. Tuilaepa knows very well that the Head of State’s powers are heavily constrained by Samoa’s supreme law: the constitution. 

As that document makes clear, it is the judiciary’s role to interpret the legal meaning of that document. They have found that His Highness has breached his obligations to the constitution repeatedly. 

 The Head of State, so help him God, swore to perform his duties “in accordance with the Constitution and the law”. He has not. And it has been the court’s duty to point that out. 

 Tuilaepa has a political genius for making what are very simple issues complicated.

 He has taken advantage of a lack of knowledge among his followers to confuse them and give the impression that a constitutional system that has been working as its framers intended has been “trampled on”.

There is, of course, no evidence of this. And Tuilaepa knows it.

But for a man who has loomed so large over the nation’s political life for more than two decades his words carry a certain undefinable credibility and authority independent of the official powers holds as a former Prime Minister. And we strongly believe he has been misusing this position to mislead and to sow division.

The self-described father of the nation now finds himself in the difficult position of his offspring moving on without him.

So far Tuilaepa has shown himself to be suffering from a serious case of relevance deprivation syndrome. Accustomed to being at the centre of national affairs he is no longer and his constant striking out is no doubt in part motivated by that. But in doing so he is wilfully inflicting serious damage on the credibility of Samoa’s future as a democracy and one of the institutions most necessary for it to continue functioning as one: the courts. 

Post-Prime Minister Tuilaepa is a man who is clearly yet to reach the acceptance stage of the cycle of loss and remains mired in anger. 

But this Father’s Day is the perfect chance to show us that when he describes himself as the father of the nation that he means it and that he loves Samoa as parents and patriots do, that is to say unconditionally.

All of his activity to date has been focused on throwing wrenches into the machinery of Government and creating the appearance of a climate of chaos when there is none; doing his utmost to make life difficult for his successor. 

But this Father’s Day Tuilaepa needs to ask himself an important question - who does he love most?

If the answer is Samoa then he must allow the business of Government to continue without him: for jobs to be created; for the economy to be managed and for new social programmes to raise the living standards of everyday Samoans.  

But if he continues to use his famous name to undermine the nation then it is clear that he loves something more than Samoa: power itself.