The political conundrum in Samoa

Dear Editor,

Re: P.M. Person of the Year 

Whilst that may be so it is rather difficult to ascertain whether he can be comparable to anyone else since he has been the only PM Samoa has had for the past two decades. 

Two things come to mind: 

1, the ultimate stable government is one in which there has been no changes in the political status quo for the past two decades. 

2. It reveals that Samoans are politically compliant and docile there has never been any politically adversarial political party to form a truly powerful opposition to contest political elections every general election cycle. 

Samoa has the ultimate elective dictatorship or rather a near to autocratic rule by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers with very, very feeble checks and balances from the Samoan Parliament, the Judiciary and the externalized executive branch outside of the PM and his Cabinet and H.R.P.P. caucus Cabal.

Samoa has been blessed with this sense of political stability it has been beneficial for those who wielded power at the expense of those who are obviously disempowered. Most notably the members from flimsy opposition parties and Independence MPs and their respective constituencies. 

Samoans have become inured with the unfettered elective dictatorship by the Human Rights Protection Party for over three decades that non-parliamentary dissent political organisations have been forged through the use of social media sources and the social sourced momentum has been sourced from externalised sources outside of Samoa and the direct political processes of the Parliamentary democracy. 

Dissension groups have arisen on social media whose political narrative is very, very narrow like a one issue political movements which lack comprehensive potency such as the S.S.I.G. and O.L.P. whose primary source of political momentum stems primarily from the dissension against the L.T.R.A. 2008 legislation and nothing more. 

When you have a one issue political movement, like the Australian Greens Party you will lose momentum very easily when you are asked basic house keeping issues such as economic and fiscal management of government, foreign trade, foreign policy, immigration issues, balance of payment reconciliation policies, local infrastructural developments, road and transport infrastructures, housing, education, health, economic stimuli, employment and business incentives and foreign investment incentives. 

When a multilayered governance issues arise the one issue political movements have no legs to walk on and fall into the wayside in political impetus. It is for this reason that the tried and tested will remain in power, hence, the H.R.P.P. have remains unchallenged for so long...Aua ua Masani i mea faigata a le faiga malo. It is for this reason most Samoans will defer these responsibilities to the status quo system unless something drastic fails or something drastic changes the circumstances of the Samoan way of life to warrant a dramatic power shift to a Johnny come lately. 

Until then the present status quo remains stoic and constant. 

Dissenting political parties must energise something that is more dynamic and instead of re-inventing the wheel, you’d much rather improve something or follow an ideology which is more dynamic in improving the development of Samoa moving forward. 

The only ideological foundation which may be rigorous enough to challenge the seemingly ultra conservative status quo would have to be a more lassiz faire and more utlilitarian or liberal political party that is not conservative but a much more liberal ideological outlook than a introverted conservative government. Perhaps a real Human Rights Party which manifestly enshrines the liberal ideological principle of liberalism would challenge the conservative party structure of the H.R.P.P. 

Because in truth the H.R.P.P is manifestly the Conservative party and any opposition party would have to represent a liberal party. 

That is unless Samoa suddenly industrialises themselves then a proletariat political party may form a Samoan Labor Party, but Samoa is still pre-industrialised and agrarian and a workers movement would be ludicrous to forge in Samoa. 

Samoa will remain a lassiz faire and mercantilist economy and will remain a liberal democracy perpetually. But, if you want to create a healthy adversarial democracy it is much more healthier to change governments from ultra nationalist and conservative right to liberal right from time to time. 

That would make for a healthy democracy otherwise we will fall into the present elective dictatorship or even worse a autocracy where one powerful man controls the country unchecked by his fellow parliamentarians let alone by the enfranchised citizenry who have blindly kept him in power at every general election.

 

Timoteo Tufuga

Samoa Observer

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