By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
With all due respect to the Judiciary and their absolute powers of justice and the law, the question now is whether they can resolve and restore political stability in Samoa with court rulings.
The rule of law is to do with justice. What has left us divided and in political purgatory is politics.
The court may deliver ruling after ruling as they have been doing since our April General Elections, but it has not brought the country any closer to political relief or unity.
Our political stability has gradually deteriorated to the shameful shambles of political leaders sworn under a tent infront of a closed Parliament House.
We have always been led to believe also that under the Constitution it is the job of the Head of State to swear in a new Parliament.
The Member of the Council of Deputies or the Chief Justice may step in if His Highness is not available.
We found out last Monday that the Constitution allows for private lawyers to do the swearing in as well, even with Head of State, Council Member and Chief Justice still around at the time.
The aftermath of the swearing-in is now lumped on to the pile-up of more court rulings on a matter grounded in politics.
Indeed justice will be served but again the question is whether it will bring Samoa closer to ending our political ordeal?
Have we not been hoping and saying that all this time and yet we are still in limbo?
Of course it is the vested role of the Judiciary in the separation of the powers of Government to ensure justice is served but that is not the issue here.
The Executive and Legislative completes the triangle of power within their own constitutional boundaries of rule.
Can these two other Constitutional divisions of power help smooth out the political hard road the court rulings are yet to succeed in?
At the moment the authority of the Judiciary wields the controlling hand over our governing triangle of power.
But there are boundaries the court cannot cross in this separation of powers. The most recent example is when the Legislative asserted its powers to lock and seal Parliament House that the court ruling was helpless to overrule.
When that happened we ended back in square one with still no end in sight.
When and whatever the next court orders are handed down, will that not lead to more legal tangle that will yet again end up IN COURT?
If the court will not bring us stability as we have found out so far, is it ungodly to take another course of action for a lasting and stable answer?
Instead of the two political parties running off to the courts, to see who is the uglier of the two, why not come together and agree to a solution?
This whole mess up we are in is in politics.
The Judiciary can do a forensic examination of the rights and wrongs of the law until the cows come home but will it solve our political problems?
Political rule is not an inherent right of the court to give. The sole authority is vested in the will of the people of Samoa.
If there is any doubt whatsoever in the expressed will of the people is it the court or the people who should have the final say?
Is it the courtrooms or the polling booths we should look to for a lasting solution and much need peace and stability?
We are only a few days from the celebration of our independence as a sovereign nation.
With the state of instability we are in what is the point?