By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
PM Fiame is going to need more than a ministerial statement to absolve members of her Cabinet from any alleged abuse of political privilege.
The damage has already been done whether real or imagined.
Unless truthful explanations are forthcoming, resentful public reactions will linger and fester against the Government leadership.
The hundreds of local passengers who recently suffered a 4-hour torture waiting for a scheduled sailing by the inter-island ferry from Salelologa to Apia, demands straight answers.
Why were they forced to endure the ordeal over a group of Chinese tourists on a joy-ride to a senior Cabinet Minister’s home district?
Who exactly is to blame? The two Cabinet Ministers who apologised for the failure were not directly involved. So what made them drop to their knees?
No way the Samoa Shipping Corporation management would hold up the boat that long unless they were told to do so from higher up.
The PM’s Ministerial Statement revealed, however, this was just part of a bigger worrying picture.
What the wider landscape portrays is direct connections between senior Cabinet Minister La’auli Leuatea Schmidt and Hong Kong based travel agent Travel Focus Ltd.
“La’auli and Travel Focus Ltd have worked together for a long time,” Fiame’s Ministerial Statement disclosed.
What the statement did not elaborate on was why they were working together when Tourism was not the Minister’s Cabinet portfolio?
How come also, that the Laauli family’s 5-weeks old travel agent, Royal Samoa Travel, became the selected choice by the Hong Kong company to handle its chartered flights?
Long established operators of the tourism travel industry will give an arm for a real answer to that question.
The Ministerial Statement response is “…it was the Hong Kong company’s choice as a private company operating independently and not with Government.”
This is a classic example of why anger will grow and fester in what the public, especially the tourism travel industry in this case, perceives as abuse of power whether it is true or not.
In the end the Travel Focus Ltd got the boot from Government as exclusive promoter of Samoa as a tourist destinations for the ASEAN region especially China.
The Samoa Tourism Authority did not react well to their advice being ignored after it awarded the company a 6 months promotional arrangement at the beginning of the year.
Travel Focus Ltd overstepped its boundaries when it scheduled more chartered flights than allowed per month.
By doing so they also turned a deaf ear to tourism infrastructure worries by the local authority STA.
The company bluntly ignored as well chartered regulations for only two flights allowed into Samoa within the month – one to fly in the travellers and the second to fly them out again.
Instead the second flight brought in more travellers who ran the risks of being stranded in Samoa until a third flight to fly them out was arranged.
The obvious question to follow after all this is where did this ‘don’t give a damn’ arrogance by this outside company come from as if Samoa is a plaything dangled at their finger tips?
Has it got anything to do with its ‘long time connections’ with influential senior Cabinet Ministers highlighted by the Ministerial statement?
Incidentally, are there any confirmed links between this company and the recent ceremony the Minister of Finance attended in Hong Kong for the establishment of the Samoa Exchange Market?
Yes, of course Government has denied official involvement in any such initiative but the question is why would the Minister make the long trip to Hong Kong for the occasion if there was no Samoa Exchange Market?
Why would the people organising the launching of Samoa’s initiative take the time and expense to set it all up knowing there was nothing to celebrate?
The reaction of donor partners to this exchange market is worth pondering too.
If Samoa’s economy rely heavily on donor support, how would our donor partners react to the risks of Samoa gambling away funds intended for national development by playing the stock market?
Of course if the Samoa Exchange Market is a national development then it should be fine.
But is it Samoa as a country that will benefit or a few influential Samoans pulling strings from behind who will end up filling their pockets at the expense of the country?
Wonder if there are any criminal acts worth checking into out there?
Sorry Madam PM, it is a genuinely good try and one every person in your leadership role would take to restore calm, order and much need trust and credibility.
Unfortunately, there are still too many loose ends to be tied up in the bigger picture to wash clean any possible abuse of political privilege for selfish personal gains.
Too many baby chickens crying out together does not turn into one, single, forlorn cry but a miserable wailing racket to wear you down.
Your Ministerial Statement is not enough to blanket out the emotional din from rippling out into the country and beyond.
A re-shuffling of your Cabinet may bring the noise level down and slow up the ripple effect, but to shut it down for peace of mind, the shuffling should be out of the door and not around the table.
The buck stops with you Madam PM. Your decision.