The political fate of Fiame Naomi Mata’afa was sealed from the moment that she left the Human Rights Protection Party and aligned herself with La’auli Leuatea Polataivao Schmidt and his Faatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi Party, formed after he too was sacked earlier from the HRPP.
Her reputation and credibility has been irreparably damaged by her affiliation with the FAST Party.
According to her, the decision to leave the HRPP was based primarily on her disagreement with the 3 constitutional amendment bills that the HRPP government passed in 2020.
This conveniently aligned with the FAST Party’s election campaign threat that the 2020 constitutional amendment bills paved the way for HRPP to sell Samoan land to the Chinese.
A threat that FAST has never been able to prove to this day.
But the lie was spread through social media, turning our diaspora against the Government.
One of her first actions as Prime Minister was to dispute the constitutional provision that guaranteed 10% representation of women in Parliament.
This shocked and disappointed her supporters including many in the donor community.
The provision is one of the most progressive legislation in the world that promotes the empowerment of women in politics.
Her 33 years of experience in the HRPP government should have told her that the economic promises of the FAST Party were not feasible.
More importantly, they did not have the professional experience or competence to deliver their unrealistic agenda.
The economy is now in shambles, cost of living is out of control, gun and drug-related crime is rampant, hospitals are in a deplorable state, primary and secondary school results are at its lowest, and the rationing of electricity imposed unnecessary suffering on our people.
Even as this letter was written, our lights went out!
The FAST Party’s claim of debt management as an effective economic policy is both shallow and naive as those HRPP infrastructure investments are actually paying themselves off, as there has been no new significant revenue streams from the FAST government.
In fact, their policies have not generated any economic growth but increased dependency on donor funding for national development and direct budget support.
The Samoa Airways fiasco perfectly captures the FAST Party’s misguided approach to economic development and financial management.
They cancelled a favourable aircraft lease arrangement because they believed the debt was too high.
Instead, they paid millions of Tala in penalty payments to cancel the lease.
Then Fiji Airways, Air New Zealand, Qantas and every other airline swooped in and made millions of dollars on the lucrative international routes left open by Samoa Airways.
Thanks to their short-sighted decision, Samoa lost millions in penalty payments, even more millions in revenue profits and our people had to pay higher airfares than ever before.
But the big FAST song and dance is that the national debt went down.
No economic growth, no profits, no new revenue stream, nothing.
Fiame knew about La’auli’s lack of integrity and the character of those around him.
She knew about the misinformation and disinformation that FAST were putting on social media.
Fiame had many opportunities to assert her leadership and confront La’auli’s illegal and disrespectful actions.
Laauli’s comments about letting untitled men have their way with women on the Nation’s Paramount Meeting Grounds at Mulinu’u was another early opportunity that Fiame could have used to challenge him and establish the moral high ground.
She never reacted despite the huge candlelight protest march by over 10,000 women of Samoa.
Then the floodgates opened: Hong Kong stock exchange, gun shipments, Togitogiga cattle and farm deals, exclusive tour company arrangements, corrupt village development projects and even false accusations against political rivals of being accomplices to serious crimes.
It is no surprise that La’auli is now facing serious criminal charges.
When FAST Party members launched political attacks on our civil servants, Fiame stayed silent.
When opportunities for overseas employment came for our young Samoan families, she backed away.
When the nation needed her visible leadership during the energy crisis, she disappeared.
When a generation of Samoans needed support to correct the injustices of a blatantly racist New Zealand citizenship law, she was indifferent.
As Prime Minister and Chairman respectively, Fiame and La’auli must accept ownership of the failures of the FAST Party government.
No amount of revisionist history or privileged lineage will erase their disastrous alliance from the Tala Faasolopito o Samoa.
It is time to turn the page and write a new chapter.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi
Leader of HRPP