By Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi – HRPP Opposition Leader
It is good that the Minister for Justice and her Advisers, have kept her latest views of the 2024 constitutional amendment bills brief.
She continues to keep a narrow technical view on the bill amendments and remains in denial of the damage that the Faatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi party’s amendment bill of 2024 will bring to the Samoan way of life.
The Constitution Amendment Bill of 2020 adopted the best of both modern principles and customary values, so that Samoan customs and usages are preserved for our future generations (Paragraph 1.5 of the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020 Explanatory Memorandum).
Article 104 of the Constitutional Amendment 2020 explicitly provides that the Land and Titles Court has ‘special jurisdiction; it governs a legal system different and separate from that of the Civil and Criminal Courts’ with ‘all persons entitled to the protection of their customs rights’ in this Article.
The creation of the Land and Titles Court of Appeal and Review empowers that ‘special jurisdiction’ enabling the protection of customs rights.
This ‘special jurisdiction’ to ‘protect custom rights’ will be abolished if the Constitutional Amendment Bill of 2024 secures the two-thirds vote of Members of Parliament.
It is disappointing when the Minister reduces her arguments to semantics on the difference between communal and customary.
This is not an academic exercise in a legal theory class.
Give the Samoan intellect a bit more respect.
The Minister doesn’t need to take my word for what will happen to the Fa’a Samoa when this protection that is presently enshrined in the constitution is abolished.
All she and her Advisers need to do is look.
Look to the North and feel the struggles of our displaced Hawaiian brothers and sisters.
Look to the South and understand the frustrations of the Maori.
Look to the West and see the plight of the Aborigines, and the Kanak.
Look to the East and hear the cries of the Tahitians and Easter Islands.
Samoans know what is at stake when their customary rights are left unprotected and their communal identity, which is the heart of the Fa’a Samoa, is left exposed to be gutted by foreign values.
Learn from history and look beyond the horizon to protect our culture and identity and the future of our people.
This is what leadership is about.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi