Samoans have been well educated for 48 years by our former colonial masters, the Government of New Zealand.

So well educated that we now fully embrace the application of the phrase, “The Rule of Law”.

Its most important meaning is that those who make the laws must be the first to honour them.

Legislation passed by the Parliament of New Zealand in the early 1920s, and again confirmed by the highest Court of Appeal of New Zealand in 1982, stipulated that Samoans born before 1949 are New Zealand citizens.

The National Government of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon and the New Zealand Parliament, however, negated the impact of the law and the appeal decision by creating a Protocol allowing 1100 Samoans to emigrate to New Zealand for citizenship per annum under certain conditions which in the end proved impossible to meet.

Indeed, even brief visits today by our people are made extremely difficult and very expensive for many.

The private member’s bill by one of the Green Party MPs to reopen the question of the protocol and end the injustice done to the Samoan people is a great initiative that all Samoans in Samoa are grateful for.

I was in New Zealand for six months in 1976 and witnessed the Muldoon Government’s use of dogs to arrest Samoans and other Pacific Islanders and send them back to their islands.

This harsh treatment of our people led to the Privy Council's Appeal decision and the protocol being the subject of the proposed bill before the Parliament of New Zealand.

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi

Leader of HRPP