By Martha Taumata Faavae
The Tautua Samoa political party shares the fears of the Samoa Law Society at the risks of disarray to the Lands and Titles Court and the Judiciary if the Constitutional changes the Government wants become law.
The political party president Afualo Wood Salele told the local media on Friday that they have issued an official written statement of protest in support of the lawyers.
“The fundamental rights of an individual and the disruption to the work of the judicial system will all be affected by these changes,” Afualo argued.
The party rejects very strongly the proposal for two separate courts as well as the appointment of a Minister’s representative into the Judicial Review Commission.
A church representative appointed by the National Council of Church would be preferred to maintain the integrity of the Commission from being compromised by a political appointment.
The powers to remove a judge of the court should still remain with the two thirds majority vote in Parliament as it currently stands.
“ This was done recently with the re-appointment of the president of the Lands and Titles Court that was put to the vote in Parliament.
‘What they’re trying to do now is for the Commission to review any incident involving a judge and forward their report to Cabinet to make the decision, we don’t agree with that.”
The Tautua is also objecting to the proposal of limiting the number of head matai in a family to 5 as blatant interference in the rights of a family to make their own decisions.
“Why is Government involved, all they’ll end up doing is create frictions and misunderstanding that will affect the peace in the family by limiting their choices.”
The extension of powers of the court inside family decisions and ownership of land are other major worries at the disruptions they will cause in the families.
Another party objection is having Government representatives sit in during the bestowal of family matai titles.
“The feeling is that Government is trying to assert more control in the affairs of a family.
“Allowing lawyers to represent families in the Lands and Titles Court is also going to make it expensive and give the families unnecessary financial burdens.”
The Tautua would rather the passage of the bills run as long as it takes to complete rather than rush them inside the remaining few months before the 2021 General Elections.