Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Once again we hear nauseating talk of gunning down a prominent political leader. This time instead of the Prime Minister as the target, an opposition political opponent is named with a bizarre twist.
Again also members of the Samoan diaspora spread out in Australia are in the scheme of things. Why is it always Australia?
A Samoan living in Australia went after the PM with a pigs head. He was later suspected of being an accomplice in a conspiracy to kill the Government leader.
Then there are two others awaiting court sentences on charges of being part of the same assassination plot against the PM. Australia was named as place of normal abode for the men.
What is wrong with that place? Why has it become a nursery for the angry members of the diaspora who want to do harm to the leadership at home in Samoa?
New assassination allegations that surfaced last week took a strange turn from the normal. The alleged mastermind is apparently the PM, accused of hiring a gunman to do his evil deed. Guess where this would-be assassin be recruited from – Brisbane, Australia.
Is it the environment of the country that is breeding this nest of assassins fouling up the clean, fresh breeze we enjoy in Samoa under the peaceful rustle of our swaying coconut trees?
History will show that we have had a couple of high profile killings of our political leaders. One was by a New Zealand soldier during a peaceful Mau movement march along Beach Road that led to our independence.
The second was a Cabinet minister whose death landed two former Cabinet Ministers in prison.
Both killings were unannounced. They happened when they happened without any big lead up talk about who was hiring whom to shoot whom.
More recently we at first heard of a conspiracy to kill the PM. Nothing happened except for the plotters who were caught and confessed it was just talk. Nothing serious.
Just before the week ended the PM himself went public over reports circulating on social media that he was behind a plan to kill a former MP who recently tendered a verbal resignation in Parliament.
The PM went even further and named would- be assassin as a person who lives in Australia. The disclosure shocked the identified person who quickly went public to deny any alleged plans where he is supposed to be the trigger man.
This kind of talk about killing off a living person, let alone a prominent individual for whatever reasons, is sickening.
Whenever this mentally deranged talk surfaces it always makes one grimace in disgust and rage.
What has shown up with the recent threat of violence is they are from the ‘mouth people.’ These are juvenile delinquents stuck in the grown up bodies of adults still struggling to mature.
To a large extent they are harmless around adults who know them well and will just shush them into silence like you do with a complaining child.
Unfortunately for everyone we are in the age of social media. What better way for these yet to be fully formed minds, to amplify their childish tantrums for adults to give them the attention they demand?
The appeal of this attention grabbing system is the anonymity that suits their youthful purpose well. You can threaten to shoot somebody and have the adults scampering before they are told it was just talk.
What is the best way to respond to these acts of childish tantrums?
Bring in Clint Eastwood. Let the movie hero deal with these ‘mouthy adults’ like he does on the big screen.
“When you come to shoot, shoot, don’t talk,” were his famous lines as he blew swirling smoke off his gun from ‘smoking’ the bad guys who were doing the ‘gun talk’ bravado.
Seriously! Our choices are simple! Do we want to live in a system of rule where matured adults decide by vote or the point of a gun where the immature shoot their way into leadership?
We can all admit that nothing in this world is perfect. We argue as it is our nature as people and we do not always agree but we compromise.
The rule of democracy we practice has much to do with this sense of compromise but in the end the majority always rules.
Agree or disagree, we the minority bow to the wishes of the majority. By the same token the rule of the majority is not always to overrule the wishes of the minority but to see if compromise is possible.
We are at peace. If the system is working why would we want to go around shooting people or threatening to do so? What more do we want?
Thank you Lord for your blessings on us this Sunday. Praise your name for the parting words before you ascended to Heaven. “
Peace be with you all.”