By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
We have a new political leader in place.
At the helm is new PM Laaulialemalietoa. Hopefully he won’t mind if we keep his title short and simple.
PM Laauli.
Easy on the tongue twisting.
The man has been in Parliament going on 20 years. No stranger to the running of Government.
He should pick up quickly on the usual start up slack. Should save us from any long warmup, while he shifts into full running gear.
Hopefully it does – for his sake and ours.
He has a Cabinet of basically newcomers who will have to pick up speed on how to lead a Government.
The new PM has some outstanding legal issues to personally sort out as well, unfortunately.
Criminal charges of conspiracy lingers, tied to the unsolved road death of a male youth at Vaitele.
This is old news of course but it has lingered like heavy clouds in the far horizon threatening a full soaking once it opens up.
Sadly for our new leader, the criminal charges and the smear of other alleged questionable involvements, like the sale of prime public land at Togitogiga, will haunt and hound him all the way,.
The hushed silence of his decision to include the Police and Attorney General under his Cabinet portfolios has turned eerie.
At least that appears to be so in what is a tsunami of whispered reactions since it was announced.
With these doubts in place, it will be a struggle for any bouncing sun to cut through the gloomy, hovering, clouds on his personal integrity.
The shine and glitter deserving of the public majority’s trust on him as leader of Government will be a matter of setting time aside to ‘sit, wait and watch.’
This is the challenge for PM Laauli. He has the next 5 years to either rise to the occasion as legitimate PM material or fall and fail by the roadside.
What should we as the country do? Give the man a fair go.
Sit. Wait. Watch.