Reading through the findings of the Special Parliamentary Inquiry Committee should make anyone who cares about the rule of law and the democratic ideals of this nation sick in the stomach.

The exclusive coverage by the Samoa Observer over the last three days, based on a report containing the findings and recommendations of the Special Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, points to the abuse of power at the highest levels of government concocted by public servants in collusion with politicians.

In the Friday 20 May 2021 edition of this newspaper (Charge those responsible: parliamentary inquiry report), the nation got to read of how changes were made to Acts of Parliament without due process and in breach of Standing Orders and the Revision and Publication Act 2008.

In fact the Committee’s report has recommended that the matter should be referred to the Office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Police for the relevant charges to be pressed against those implicated.

And then there is the excerpt in the Committee’s Report that makes reference to the L.T.C. President and his email that sought “corrections” to certain passages of the L.T.C. Acts under scrutiny.

According to the Committee’s report: "Committee is certain that not only the President of the Land and Titles Court emailed his changes, he personally came to the Office and met those that are involved with making the changes."  

So why is the L.T.C. President getting himself involved in the legislative process that is outside the confines of his jurisdiction as the head of a separate arm of Samoa’s Judiciary?

Was the L.T.C. President invited by the Prime Minister at that time to be part of the consultative process or was he invited by the Speaker of the House of the last parliament?

We are treading on dangerous grounds when the head of one arm of the Judiciary is meeting with staff from the Office of the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly (O.C.L.A.) after the L.T.C. Bills or any Bills for that matter are passed by the parliament to make “corrections”.

Is this transparency on the part of the Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P.) Government at that time to the people of Samoa in relation to the L.T.C. Bills controversy? 

Sadly, the evidence in the Committee’s report now confirms all our worst fears two years ago about those suites of legislation, which the former Administration promulgated to suit their own interest and political agenda.

We note the findings highlighted in the Committee’s Report, which pointed to the then Clerk of the Legislative Assembly not having sufficient time to properly check the changes in the legislation, to ensure they were in line with Standing Orders 111.

Okay let us take a time capsule and travel back to March-April 2020, when this newspaper first published a letter signed by Judges of the Courts in Samoa, urging the Government to rethink its plan to make the L.T.C. autonomous and put in place two parallel Court systems.

The members of the Judiciary were then supported by the Samoa Law Society, esteemed jurists from around the world, and international human rights organisations including the United Nations.

But the H.R.P.P. Government, staying true to form with their dominance of Samoan politics at that time, disregarded the expert opinion, public outcry and concerns expressed by the international community to push ahead with its legislative agenda.

Two years later and here we are, angry and disillusioned at how a number of senior public servants allegedly working in cahoots with politicians were still making changes to the laws, even after they were passed by our parliament.

A number of people need to be held accountable for this disgraceful conduct in the last days of the H.R.P.P. Administration, and we welcome the call by the Special Parliamentary Inquiry Committee in its report, for the Parliament to refer the matter to the Office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Police.

In fact, while we let the process take its course, we strongly believe those officials and senior public servants who were implicated by the Committee’s report, should review their tenures and step down for bringing their offices into disrepute.

The findings of the O.C.L.A. inquiry and its emphasises that the anomalies discovered in the L.T.C. Acts are just “administrative errors” (Parliamentary Committee rubbishes ‘administrative errors’ finding) leaves a lot to be desired. It is obvious the officers within the Office who led the investigation and arrived at those findings have lost their impartiality, and do not deserve to be employed in an Office where they should do their work with integrity.

In retrospect, if the Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (F.A.S.T.) party did not overwhelm the H.R.P.P. in last year’s general election and did not form government – which would have seen the country’s oldest political party returning to govern – you can be assured that the people would be fed the big lie, totally unaware of the secret hijacking of Samoa’s legislative process in the last parliament.

On the eve of the country’s 60th Independence Anniversary, let’s do this nation a favour by removing the bad apples who continue to become hurdles in Samoa’s journey, and trample on the people’s rights to a transparent and accountable parliament.