By Staff Writer
The Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, has been bouncing off and on his seat to take on the ‘sniper’ onslaught of what he termed the unofficial opposition in Parliament.
He named the Salega MP Olo Vaai, Gagaifomauga MP La’aulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt and Faleata Urban MP Faumuina Wayne Fong.
The naming came at the start of the Friday session when Olo questioned the Minister of Agriculture for a record of $50m tala worth of grants from international donor agencies to fund development projects in agriculture.
MP La’auli moved a motion for the Minister to make the documents available to members and was seconded by MP Faumuina.
Speaker Toleafoa Fa’afisi advised that the Minister of Finance went over the funding earlier but members will have a second chance to ask for more details later.
PM Tuilaepa objected to the connotations behind the $50m tala inquiry by members as if the funds were misused.
He added that all will be explained in detail in due course but the members were all privy to all the explanations that are inside the budget.
“They’ve had the budget documents for weeks now and all they have to do is read,” Tuilaepa raged.
The debate strayed into chaos when the PM went after MP La’auli who was a former Minster of Cabinet and should already be aware of Cabinet procedures.
Speaker Toleafoa struggled to bring the debate under control as the PM and his former Cabinet Minister went at each other.
The exchange wandered off into name calling when the PM condemned public television allegations by the MP against the independence of the Office of the Attorney General.
The MP was a defendant in a criminal matter over a business venture with other business partners that were brought before the Supreme Court.
The Speaker did manage to bring the debate ‘distractions’ and ‘hostility’ between the combatants under control.
La’auli did have one up on his political foe when the Supreme Court ruling later in the day cleared the MP of all the criminal charges brought against him.
His ‘opposition party’ members were at the Court House building next door to celebrate the verdict with their ‘champion.’
The budget debate is the last for the current Parliament.
The passage of the new national budget will continue into the new Parliament to be formed after the next General Election next year, April 2021.