By Staff Writer
Faleata No.3 MP Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi, is a physical giant of a man who loomed even larger last week with his surprised suspension from Parliament on Monday.
His physical appearance matched his political weight as opposition MP when it took all the MPs of the Government dominated House to cast him out on suspension with their vote.
Lealailepule walked unsuspectingly into a 24-hour suspension ruling by the Speaker, Papali’i Taeu Masepa’u, at the start of the House session, after the weeklong COVID 19 health security lockdown.
He was ruled guilty of Standing Orders violation, for speaking in public about an inquiry report tabled by the Prime Minister, on the mix up of documents signed into law by the Head of State on new changes to the Constitution.
Lealailepule mumbled about speaking to the local media on his way out of chambers that threatened a follow up suspension on his return.
The MP did meet with the local media and expressed his misgivings about the timing of his suspension when he was about to take his turn to address the Supplementary Budget debate.
He quietly suspected that it was a planned move in retaliation for being outspoken on a host of controversial issues critical of Government most recently on leadership indecision in handling the COVID 19 lockdown.
Included in his attacking reaction was the decision by the Speaker to re-convene Parliament.
The calling of Parliament to session was seen as deliberately overriding the State of Emergency Order signed into law by the Head of State restricting public gathering to only 30 people.
The Speaker’s call ran closely parallel to the political controversy of the Constitutional crisis of last year where the authority of the Office of the Head of State was alleged to have been usurped
Up to a 100 people, including the 51 MPs are normally closeted in the building when Parliament is in session.
A spirited Lealailepule did manage to highlight through the media the main issues he had planned to speak on in Parliament.
One of his concerns are the inconsistencies starting to emerge within the popular Seasonal Workers Scheme and the strict adherence to the selection criteria.
Workers with medical conditions or police records slipping through the scheme restrictions were highlighted as starting to show up.
Cases of workers who died while on the job from supposedly undetected health conditions were pointed out.
The costly return of the Samoa Airways leased aircraft in terms of contract breach for the return of the aircraft was a lose-lose situation as far as the MP is concerned.
The financial burdens of travel for the country and the loss of secondary benefits to other industries like tourism were also noted.
Lealailepule was back in Parliament on Tuesday and his apology for any conduct unbecoming to offend the dignity of Parliament was welcomed by a forgiving Speaker of the House.
The pair have since established a warm relationship enough for the opposition MP to be overheard at the end of the day’s session in the House addressing the Speaker as …. ‘my brother’.