There is a famous saying, "fake it till you make it," which I found quite amusing but accurately describes what has been happening in Samoan politics for the last four years.

With the general elections just over one month away, the pretenders are finally being exposed.

Neither the Faatuatua I le Atua Samoa ua Tasi nor the Samoa Ua Potopoto parties have listed their achievements or issued their manifesto for the people to study.

FAST keeps making wild promises, and SUP is scrambling for ideas.

FAST Chairman La'auli Leuatea Schmidt's comments and ideas on how to manage the economy are no laughing matter.

His inability to explain the FAST Party's strategy to counter the high cost of living and inflation or generate economic growth shows a serious lack of depth in fiscal and monetary policy issues.

Even more dangerous is his misguided belief that somehow new monies will come from somewhere or someone to fund Samoa's development.

He provides no details, just vague references. Maybe it will be the diaspora or some shady investors who will miraculously throw billions of dollars at us.

His weakness for quick money schemes is a serious red flag for development partners, donors, investors and Samoans who believe in accountability, transparency and the rule of law.

The suffering of the Samoan people is far from the FAST Party's priorities!

Instead, they have become big fans of the HRPP's hit campaign song that everyone is singing.

As per usual, FAST can only react to what HRPP does.

Meanwhile, the SUP’s strategy of individual members rolling out their development priorities shows that there is no control over the party's agenda.

Instead of addressing the overall development of the nation, one SUP caretaker minister is desperately distributing village project funds, another is only now realising the importance of revenue collection, and a third is promising to rehabilitate prisoners if given another term in Parliament.

The Electric Power Corporation’s long-standing problems have suddenly become a top priority for yet another, and one more is rushing to purchase a $13 million ferry that we believe is unsafe in the open waters between Upolu and Savai’i.

SUP have started a very creative campaign strategy by sending out love messages to the Human Rights Protection Party, which is making their ex-best friends in FAST very jealous.

The sad fact is that both FAST and SUP are simply looking for distractions.

They are class clowns who have suddenly realised that final exams are here, and they've not done any homework or learned a single lesson.

It’s glaringly obvious that most of them simply missed too many days of school.

But the test is around the corner.

And we all know that you cannot fake it on examination day.

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi

Leader of HRPP