Dear Editor,

Well, that escalated quickly. Samoa’s Parliament turned into a reality show this week, and spoiler alert: Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa just walked away with the season finale, the script, and the remote control.

This week, Samoa witnessed political theatre at its most dramatic and perhaps its most revealing. After the budget was defeated in Parliament, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa acted swiftly and decisively, as required by law, advising the Head of State to dissolve Parliament and call an election. What followed was a display of desperation by her opponents that bordered on farce.

In a move that smacked of chaos and ambition, the Clerk of the House and his deputy arrived at the Head of State’s residence with a letter claiming that Laauli had the majority support and should be appointed Prime Minister, attempting to bypass legal protocol and recall Parliament. It was a transparent, last-gasp attempt to hijack power through the backdoor.

Let’s be clear here folks, this is not how our constitutional democracy is supposed to function. The laws of Samoa do not grant Parliament the power to appoint a Prime Minister in this manner once it has been dissolved. And if the objective of defeating the budget was to trigger a government collapse so they could scramble for power, then the motive behind their actions is now plain as day.

But Fiame, ever the tactician, had already sealed the path forward. She moved first, she moved smart, and she moved legally. And now, the very group that has spent the past three years belittling, undermining, and attacking Samoa’s first female Prime Minister are left licking their wounds—casualties of their own short-sightedness.

There is irony and justice in the fact that those who schemed to block the budget and throw the country into political turmoil now find themselves unpaid, uncertain, and powerless under a caretaker government. They gambled, and Fiame beat them at their own game. She didn’t just have the last laugh, she had the first move and the final say.

In times of crisis, real leadership reveals itself. While Laauli and his idiotic followers were busy plotting in the shadows, Fiame followed the law, respected the institutions of governance, and ensured that the will of the people would ultimately prevail through the ballot box.

Laauli and his idiotic followers have tried everything to remove her—from legal challenges to procedural stunts to public smear campaigns. But what they seem to continually underestimate is not just Fiame’s resilience, but her intelligence. She's not just the first female Prime Minister of Samoa, she’s one of the sharpest political minds in the region. And today, as the dust settles and the nation waits for an election date, Fiame and her Cabinet are standing tall, while the rest are left in limbo.

If this was a game of chess, Fiame just called checkmate.

Concerned.