By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Popular Member of Parliament, Lealailepule Mr. Rimoni Aiafi, is deeply disappointed with many of the EFKS ‘faifeau’ or church ministers, who are publicly calling to vote out the Government in the April General Elections.
The Faleata No.3 MP Lealailepule is an unopposed candidate for the upcoming elections and will be sworn in when a new Parliament is elected and Government formed.
The blatant anti-Government political campaigning by many of the EFKS ‘faifeau’ is an open secret but the MP-elect is not naming any names.
Voter protests are starting to surface inside electoral constituencies against ‘faifeau’ allegedly urging church followers to vote against the current Government.
Lealailepule is an associate Cabinet Minister and is also an EFKS Church born and raised member of the faith.
He knows that the EFKS ‘faifeau’ are angry at being made by Government to pay personal income taxes like everyone else.
He sees the call to bring the Government down as an attempt to keep their protest going.
The general election is felt to be where the answer may lie to their prayers of removing the taxes.
“I am so very sad with the EFKS church using the ‘faifeau’ tax issue to cross over into politics by calling on members of the faith to vote out the Government,” MP Lealailepule agonized.
“The main role of Christianity is the spiritual life of the people while the physical life is a matter for Government.”
The MP is highly critical of ‘faifeau’ who fancies being politicians while still doing God’s work as ordained church ministers.
“You can’t serve two masters all at once; as politicians we stay far far away from the work of the ‘faifeau’ because it is a holy calling.
“ Our calling as politicians, elected by the free will of the voters, is to look after the wellbeing of the people and the country.”
Lealailepule is challenging all ‘faifeau’ who are actively using their respected religious status to woo the voters, to leave their holy calling behind and step into the political arena.
“Go run in the general elections if you want to get into politics, you can’t and should not mix things up.
“All authorities are from God and if your calling is to be a preacher and you want to be a politician at the same time, that is going against holy authority.”
The EFKS Church is the leading denomination in Samoa with members of the faith making up 32 per cent or 51,000 of the population in the 2011 Census.
The church count has since dropped to 29 percent following the 2016 population census.
The new head count continues a huge slide from 54 per cent of the population who had followed the teachings of the faith since the 1961 census .
The Catholic and Methodist churches are among the leading denominations in Samoa and they trail behind the EFKS.
Recent population census have shown the LDS church to be the fastest growing denomination in the country.