By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Politics in Samoa is as highly flammable today as it was when it first crashed and spilled all over the place after the April 2021 General Elections.
The Fonotoe-La’auli blow up in Parliament on Tuesday, when the House had hardly warmed up in debate, is a pathetic example.
Deep seated political loathing smolders deeply in the bowels of leadership on both sides.
All it took to ignite the verbal punch up was a Fonotoe offer of a solution for the Speaker to end the suspension of Tuilaepa and Lealailepule.
This was after the Speaker complained at being bad mouthed by the suspended former PM and opposition leader.
Mr. Speaker what did you expect?
When you suspended the man on a court ruling over a matter of noble intentions, to bring some harmony back for the country, did you think he will sing your praises?
Fonotoe was right! The solution lies with you!
Return Tuilaepa and Lealailepule to Parliament and clean out your political mumbo jumbo stink.
Yes, Tuilaepa is suspended but he is still an MP with rights to freedom of expression.
If there are no stipulations in the Parliamentary Standing Orders to silence suspended MPs, then Mr. Speaker, take the Fonotoe advice.
If you or your party’s ‘shadow leader’ wants Tuilaepa to apologise return him to Parliament.
Do your fighting in your own arena. Keep your leadership squabbles away from inciting the innocent into regrettable situations.
The longer he is kept out the more divided the people remains. Common sense!
The national economy is reeling from the global impact of already known economic causes, what is PM Fiame and her Govt. doing about it?
We the people want to know. We deserve to be guided by strong leadership in these challenging times we are transitioning.
Political fundraising for American dollars is not going to cut it.
All it has done so far is to embarrass the country when the fundraisers led by a Cabinet Minister were booted by American security officers.
The booting makes it the second time in a row the leader of this fundraising drive left with boot marks on his backside.
The first was when he tried to barge into a Forum leadership conference uninvited.
Pre-election promises of million tala handouts to the villages are a joke. Denials there were no such promises made makes it a sick joke.
“You don’t fool nobody no time”. An individual said that while on his way to Tanumalala on criminal convictions.
Stop insulting the intelligence of the people. Show some leadership spine instead.
Tuilaepa will always be a thorn to pester the Government side – left or right.
He is the opposition leader and as he has repeatedly stated, it is his job along with his party to become watchdogs of Government policies.
Dogs bark. Good ones do so with their teeth.
PM Fiame and her Cabinet Ministers will need to take that in stride. Deliberately keeping Tuilaepa and Lealailepule out of Parliament is kicking at the dog to silence the barking.
Sorry but it is not working. Ask Speaker Papali’i.
Here is perhaps an option to consider. If our political leaders are unable to reunite the people back into the harmony of pre-general elections, maybe we should accept the divisions as our new political norm.
Worth a thought.
Encourage political divisions in a ‘You Jane Me Tarzan’ way. You HRPP. Me FAST.
We did it with COVID 19. While it did not stop the virus from spreading it made us more health conscious.
We could be encouraged to wear masks. Blue for the HRPP side and Red for FAST.
What is that going to achieve?
How about making it easier for people to accept political loyalties in each other and move on with life?
Fonotoe has rightly offered as the best answer the return of Tuilaepa and Lealailepule back to Parliament.
Why put more political pressure on the Judiciary with a ruling of the court on the suspension of the two opposition MPs when it is a Parliamentary matter?
Time for our political leadership to ‘man up’ and be who they are chosen to be.
We as the people are way beyond the ‘sick of it all’ point.