Twenty-five days post the General Elections in Samoa

It is now twenty-five days since the General Elections in Samoa. The HRPP party is again the ruling party with 29 seats plus 7 Independents who automatically became HRPP gave a total of 36 seats. The 13 seats were won by the Samoa Tautua Party thus bringing a legal Opposition to Samoa's parliament.
Only two female MPs entered parliament after this elections.
Prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi is re elected and he has now selected his Cabinet of eleven men and one woman.
Samoa Tautua Party has also selected its Shadow Cabinet.
However there are ten election petitions awaiting resolution in Court. So the elections are not completed until all ten cases are resolved.
In the meantime, more aid money are being signed by the new Minister of Finance.

I still wonder why the seven Independents who were voted in as Independents automatically became HRPP MPs. It would have been more democratic for them to have stayed as Independents then the HRPP government would not have got the two-third majority for voting purposes. Nevertheless I do pray that all MPs will have as their highest concern the interest of the country over party interest in matters of the greatest importance. I anticipate some interesting debates in parliament with the calibre of MPs in the Samoa Tautua Party. May God preside as the highest Speaker in the House in the next five years 2011 to 2016.

Triple Disasters in Japan

Three Hundred thousand people are in evacuation centers as a result of last week's 8.9 magnitude earthquake, a giant tsunami and now radiation contamination from nuclear reactor meltdown. All in northern Japan.

Let us keep Japan on our prayer list.

We also pray that the world with nuclear reactors will come to their senses about the risks of contamination on human lives. We pray that us humans will one day realize that the environment that is being abused by our greedy need for profit is supposed to be shared by all living things on earth.

According to David Suzuki, our mentality is still in the 1940's and unless we feel the magnitude of climate change in our "guts" consensus remains too distant to achieve.

Samoa Politics -Past Events need revisiting to understand the present

Editorial in Samoa Observer by chief editor Savea Sano Malifa.

15-03-2011 10:49

“What a beautiful country Samoa is if only
there wasn’t so much poverty” - tourist



TODAY'S TOPIC: Remembrance is the window through which you see the past.

[Savea Sano Malifa]

Savea Sano Malifa
They say remembrance is the window through which you see the past. We believe that.

Friday evening we drove down to Mulinu’u. The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) are camping there for two weeks.

It’s a ritual.

They camp at their Mulinu’u headquarters after every general election bringing their wives and big supporters along.

HRPP Whip La’aulialemalietoa Polata’ivao confirms this saying: “I was part of this tradition when I was very young as my father was in Parliament for 40 years.
“So I know the procedures and what the camp stands for. “

He goes to explain that “for the new members, it’s a time to observe and get themselves immersed in the procedures of the HRPP.

“To become part of the whole movement so we are one when it’s time to go to Parliament.”

La’auli tells the Samoa Observer he’s blown away by the vision laid down by the founding fathers of the HRPP.
“The HRPP headquarters is called ‘Le Taelega i Petesa’,” he points out.

“In the Pool at Petesa during our Saviour’s time, people go there to clean themselves of ailments and to be renewed.
“That is the vision for HRPP where we come to Petesa to clean, renew and re-arm ourselves.

“It’s here where everyone is made ready for Parliament and fight for what’s best for the country.”
Great vision. Exceptional wisdom.

However the Whip missed a couple of things. He did not tell how an MP in the HRPP camp was “stolen” at night while everyone was asleep, so that soon afterwards a new government was formed. Since then more caution had been exercised with the security at camp.

Neither did he explain that just behind the HRPP camp is a sandy spot surrounded by clusters of mangrove growth. It is there that the former Minister of Public Works Leafa Vitale built his motel and bar and named it Le Penina.

The land is government owned but Leafa just took it and built on it. Later when Cabinet was reshuffled and the young lawyer Luagalau Levaula Kamu replaced Leafa at PWD, Luagalau repossessed the land and Leafa was angry.
And yet the HRPP Whip did not say anything about this one either.

Neither did he explain why the pool at Petesa failed miserably to “clean” the “ailments” of Leafa Vitale and his colleague Toi Aokuso, who went on and threatened to kill editors, reporters, the Chief Executive Officers of Treasury and the Lands and the Environment, the Financial Controller of the Electric Power Corporation (EPC), and ended up with the plot to kill Luagalau Levaula Kamu.

Incidentally, Luagalau was shot in the back by a son of Leafa’s on the night the HRPP was having its birthday party. And yet the Whip did not say anything about this one either. Neither did he reveal a part of the plot to kill Luagalau was an order to also “pull (kill) the PM and the fat judge.”

Still, what does he mean when he says it’s at the Pool at Petesa “where everyone is made ready to go to Parliament and fight for what’s best for the country.” So shouldn’t the government take some money out of Treasury and build a “Pool at Petesa” and make the whole thing real? That would certainly be the ideal thing to do.

Anyway, it seems the Whip is talking a lot of nonsense here. How can Cabinet Ministers and government officials living in government houses and using government vehicles as if they own them, ever think of “fighting for what’s best for the country.”

People have been living in squalor right here around town all the time the HRPP has been in power for close to thirty years now, and yet nothing has changed. They are still living in naked poverty today.

So let’s hope that this time the government would do something to rid this country of despicable, lousy poverty. A visitor last week had this to say: “What a beautiful country Samoa is if only there wasn’t so much poverty.”

And that is something for the HRPP government and its Whip to think about.

Poverty. If they have to think about nothing else but poverty when they go into Parliament this time and what exactly it means, that’s enough.

Meantime we should always keep in mind that remembrance is the window through which we are able to see the past.

Ia o'o mai Lou Malo

O le fe'au mo le aso o faiga palota saunia e le Susuga Setu Petaia. Lomia i le Samoa Observer.



“Ia oo mai lou Malo” PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 01 March 2011 18:10

[Petaia Setu]

Petaia Setu
[Mataio 06:10]

Se a se afaina o i faigamalo a le lalolagi? Ae faapefea le mau faamatalaga ma ata o loo tatou molimauina i ālā leo ma ālā ata mai atunuu mamao? Se a se vaaiga i faiga malo a Aikupito, o Bahrain, o Libya, ma isi atunuu?

E mafua i se a taua ma misa ma le mau faalavelave matautia i nisi vaega o le lalolagi?

Ua sesē ea le pulega a tagata, pe ona ua pau lava? Ua pulepuletutū taitai, pe ona ua le lavā e tagatanuu onosa’i? Ua le faatuatuaina faiga malo, pe ona ua tatau lava ona fai o se fofō?

A le o le sesē mamao o le alavaa, o lona uiga la, e oti le ola faaleagaga.

Na silafia lelei e Iesu, o le oti lea o soo se faiga malo i le lalolagi; e oge ma le Agaga o le Atua; e mamao ese ma le Atua.

Fai mai la Iesu, a outou tatalo, ia faapea,
Lo matou Tama e, o i le lagi
Ia paia lou Suafa,
Ia oo mai lou malo.

O le malo o loo tā’ua e Iesu, o le malo o le Atua; o le malo o le lagi. O le aoaoga muamua lava lea a Iesu ina ua a’e mālō mai le vao i le fagafulu aso (Mataio 04:17).

Ae o le ‘mătua’ foi ma le ‘autu’ lea o le lauga a Iesu (Mataio 5:7), “O le malo o le Atua”
Samoa, o le malo o loo autū iai le lauga nei, e tulaga ese.

A tautalagia le malo lea, o lona uiga ua tatou talanoa i foliga o le Atua; i lona mamalu; i ona uiga poo lona natura; i lona silisili ese, ma lona tamāliiaga. I le, o le ata atoa lea o le Atua o loo mana’o Iesu ina ia o’o mai i tagata uma, ma ia pulea ai faiga malo uma.

“Aua o loo ia Ieova le mālō” (Salamo 22:25). “O lou malo, o le malo lea e faavavau lava; ma lau pule e au tupulaga lava ia (Salamo 145:13)”.

O malo e fau e tagata o le lalolagi, o malo fetaua’i. Auā foi e fau i ala o le lalolagi. E fausia i foliga ma amioga a le alii o le lalolagi. O faiga faatosina; o faiga faatogafiti; o faiga taufaamata’u; o folafolaga taufaasesē, e i’u i misa ma fevaevaea’iga.

Ae faapefea le atunuu e faavae i le Atua? E faapefea ona puipui Samoa mai le fe’aina’i ma le feinoinoa’i? O le tiute o tagata uma, saili le malo o le Atua (f.33). A o le faanaunauga o le loto, ia oo mai le malo o le Atua i tagata uma.

O le malo o le Atua i le manatu o Paulo, ‘o le amiotonu, o le filemū, ma le olioli i le Agaga Paia” (Roma 14:17).

A siliasila i le tatalo ua a’oa’o mai ai Iesu ia i tatou, o le mana’o muamua lava lea, Lo matou Tama e.... “IA OO MAI LOU MALO”. Aisea? Ua le talitonuina faigamalo a tagata?

Silasila i le poto o Iesu, o le mana’o lea ua a’oa’oina ai oe ma a’u, o le mana’o o aso uma; o le mana’o o le olaga atoa. Ia oo mai le malo o le Atua i soo se vaega faaupufai i aso uma. Ia oo mai lou malo le Atua i tagata lautele o Samoa i taimi uma.

Ia oo mai le amiotonu ma le filemu o le Atua i lana ekalesia i le olaga atoa. O le uiga lea o le
faamamafa a Iesu i lana lauga; “A ia outou muai saili le malo o le Atua ma lana amiotonu”. Auā foi o le malo o le Atua e faaeaina ma manuia saoloto ai tagata uma.

O lana amiotonu e manino ai ma malamalama ai tagata uma, e tonu ma faamaoni ai mea uma.

La lea sa taumafai foi le perofeta o Mika e tata’i mai iai le olaga o Isaraelu, “Sole, ua faaali atu e ia ia te oe le mea lelei; se a foi se mea e finagalo ai Ieova ia te oe.... ia fai le amiotonu, ia naunau i le alofa, ma ia feoai ma lou Atua ma le loto faamaulalo” (Mika 6:8).

O uiga mamalu ma foliga paia ia o le Atua na te tauaveina le tamāliiaga ma le silisili ese o lona malo.

O loo tautala ai foi le fai Salamo ma le tusitala o le Eperu, “Le Atua e, o lou nofoalii e faavavau faavavau lava lea; o le tootoo o lou malo, o le tootoo o le amiotonu” (Salamo 45:6, Eperu 1:8)

Samoa e, e faigofie ona tauloto ma pese i le mana’o (Ia oo mai lou malo) i taimi uma; ae faigata tele ona tau faatonutonu le olaga o aso uma i le mana’o lea. ‘Aua le avea o se tauloto ua masani ai; ae ia malamalama ai le loto, ma faamaoni i le mana’o ua fai ma autu o le lauga.

O le vaiaso ua mavae i le ma lenei foi vaiaso, o saunoaga a sui tauva uma o le faiga palota; i le ma le faalauiloa faalauaiteleina o anava tausi a vaega faaupufai ole palemene.

O la tatou tatalo Samoa, ia pulea e le filemu o outou loto.

Ia taitaiina e le faimeatonu ma le amiotonu lou finagalo. Ia naunau tagata uma i le alofa; ma ia feoai faatasi ma le Atua sui tauva uma ma le loto faamaualalo.

Tafēfē ae faamaoni le sailiga a le atunuu i le Atua, oka! e faaolaina uma tatou i le faamasinoga a le Atua, a ea?

Afai foi ae mata’u le ekalesia ma ona taitai i le Atua ma tautala sa’o i le amiotonu a le Atua, oka! e le toe faia faamalosi ni saofaga o mana’oga faaletagata i luga o galuega faaleagaga, a ea?

Ae a faamaoni foi ona naunau i le alofa se vaega faaupufai ma feoai ma le Atua ma le loto faamaulalo, oka! e seki lava lou tula’i mai, a ea?

Manatua le fesaga’iga a taitai ia e toalua, na faapea ai le isi taitai i le isi taitai, “E le mai le lalolagi nei lo’u malo......” (Ioane 18:36). Ioe, o ia lea na a’oa’oina i tatou i le tatalo, “.....auā e ou le malo ma le mana..”

Samoa e, na aumai le menifeso (faalauiloa faalauaitele) a le Atua, tatou te le i iloa le lalolagi. Na faailoa e Iesu i luga o le mauga o Olive. Faitau lelei iai i le Mataio 5,6,7, ia e malamalama; ma ia e lagonaina.

O le anava tausi o lena menifeso, “E faaolaina oe i le Malo o le Atua”.

E leitioa a naunau Iesu e faamuamua le mana’o lea i le tatalo: ‘Ia oo mai lou malo’. Auā o le malo na te faatupu le filemu.

Ia lo’u atunuu e, i so’o se tafa o le lalolagi, aumaia lo outou finagalo. Tatou tatalo faatasi mo sui tauva uma o Samoa.

Tatou tatalo mo vaega faaupufai uma o le palemene. Tatou tatalo mo tagata lautele o le atunuu i Samoa ma soo se itu o le lalolagi.

Tatou tatalo mo le ekalesia a Iesu Keriso i Samoa.Tatou tatalo mo le manuia o le atunuu ma lo tatou faaolaina.
“Lo matou Tama e, o i le lagi,

Ia paia lou Suafa
IA O’O MAI LOU MALO mo Samoa”


Amene
Phone (0685) 25125

General Elections in Samoa Today

Today 4th of March in Samoa is the day of the general elections. My prayer is for peace and honesty throughout the day. Oh Lord we seek your blessing on the voters, the candidates, the officers of the election process. May they perform their duties in honesty and integrity so that the result is something that will be best for Samoa and her future. Hear us in Jesus name - AMEN.