One day last week a doctor serving the Motootua Outpatients reportedly addressed the numerous angry patients who had been waiting for hours to see a doctor, and he told the waiting patients, “Please know that the couple of us serving you tonight have been working as volunteers all day. We are not being paid anymore”.
The more highly paid workers’ schemes offered by New Zealand and Australia are often blamed as the culprit.
Yet for over 19 years, these schemes have been ongoing as part of our Pacer Plus Trading arrangements where our Pacific Islands contribution is in the form of Trade-in-Services for we have little goods to Trade with New Zealand and Australia.
So, jobs for our people did not occur out of the goodness of the hearts. It was an obligation! And all countries give priority to job creation for their many unemployed.
The difference in salaries therefore for locals compared to their counterparts in New Zealand has always been well known to our people for over 60 years since our Independence.
When HRPP left the Government in 2021, every district hospital in Upolu and Savaii was served by a residential doctor.
For the Police, it is reported that many police have left. The Police needs to have 1000 police.
We must always remember that the more than 30,000 Matais (Chiefs in the Villages) are all police who were responsible for the maintenance of law and orders in our Villages for over 5000 years?
It means we have too many policemen, Samoanise our Police Force.
And for Health, the new CEO must learn to work harder and talk less. More specifically, we must never ever be short of medical supplies and above all, stay clear of reported conflict of interest.
Leader of HRPP
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi