Last Tuesday 24 th August 2022 our Parliament passed a motion to give time to its staff to insert some
very minor corrections to three Constitutional Bills already passed by Parliament into law on 15
December 2020.
These editing changes do not affect the substance of the Bills which were subsequently signed into
law.
Both the current Speaker and Clerk have already publicly apologized in Parliament for this oversight.
They too are humans, not angels, and as such are susceptible to making mistakes.
So even without these minor editing mistakes corrected the laws as signed are the laws of the Land
that must be observed by Parliament, the Executive, Judiciary and all the people of Samoa.
However, the mistakes must be corrected to meet the objective of clarity of legal language for
people to understand the meaning of each clause so that everyone reading should have the same
interpretation.
To correct these administrative oversights, the rules governing the conduct of Parliament’s business
provide for a very simple way out by giving more time to the staff to correct their mistakes.
This solution is well known to the Attorney General’s Office and the HRPP MPs who recommended
in their speeches in Parliament to adopt.
Instead an expensive and uncalled for Commission of Enquiry of MPs was set up to consider another
questionable option like the repeal of the Constitutional Amendments already passed into law.
These amendments were considered since the beginning of 2016.
My motion in Parliament at its first meeting of Parliament in March following the 2016 general
elections, overwhelmingly approved this first step towards the Constitutional Review through a
Parliamentary Committee, whose report culminated in the passage into law in Parliament on the 15
December of the 3 Bills by over 2/3 rd majority in the House
This Review took 5 years of open debates in Parliament and publicly broadcasted for the public’s
attention.
Written proofs of these words are found in the Hansard.
Many learned lawyers and Judges who never read the Hansard nor listen to Parliament debates are
not aware of these processes taken by the HRPP government at that time.
The truth is, slowly, slowly being revealed.
By the use of common sense, many problems we face during our lives are solved.
Today four of our Government’s most experienced lawyers that formed our Team who created
history in the drafting of our laws to recognize our Cultural traditions have left the service of our
Government, to where their expertise is respected: Truly, a prophet is not often respected in his
own Country.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi
Leader of HRPP