Dear Editor,

Thank you Marj Moore for the editorial but the title of this article should be changed to “Government of Fools” because when the budget was first released, the supporting fools sang ‘Hallelujah’ as they believed everything this foolish government said. Not even one of these fools sat back and calculated the Budget. 

With a $1.5 billion loan that’s gone through the ceiling, where do the fools think the government is going to get the money from to fund the $986 million, 2016/17 budget? I’ve said it a 100 times before that the budget is just numbers on a sheet of paper and the govt. is broke. 

They can come up with the money to pay for useless govt. members’ 4WDs and their salaries and to develop their families, but when it comes to money for Agriculture; Education; Health etc to be spent on the people, the government’s response relayed by Minister Tialavea Tioniosio Seigafolava is, “say a prayer and hope for a donor from somewhere to provide us the funds.” I’ve never heard this sort of statement uttered by a politician/government anywhere else in the world – only in Samoa.

According to the so-called Budget, $10 million was apparently allocated for the Jail – but the Minister of Prison and Customs, M.P. Tialavea said that they’ve only got $1 million and a shortfall of $9 million! I debated this issue four years ago with a lot of the fools (government supporters) who bragged that the government will be building a ‘5 Star, state of the art prison.’ Numerous times I told them, “The government is broke and it does not have any money.” Now the Minister of Prisons response has confirmed what I always said – the government is broke.

Now I know why PM Tuilaepa blushed and squirmed in his seat when the 60 Minutes programme interviewer asked him about the $15 million Australia donated and said, “where is it, Prime Minister?” They were indeed valid questions. 

The government also told the people that, “We must not spend beyond our means,” but they didn’t hesitate to spend $$ on a brand new 4WD for a Minister. Why didn’t the government confiscate one (if not all) of the cars like the Toyota Lexus from a certain Minister as he had three public vehicles in his possession and give one of those cars to the Minister of Customs?

The way P.M. Tuilaepa and his H.R.P.P. are behaving when it comes to the abuse of public funds; will make anyone sick in the stomach. Look at the sky rocketing cost of living forced onto the poor, the sick and the weak, to pay off this goernment’s corruption and for the ongoing abuse of Public Funds. 

Sit back and watch. There will be more similar stories like that from the Minister of Prisons, from every other Government Ministry – all in due time.

New Zealand has been blacklisted by Europe for money laundering and Samoa will be next. Australia has already blacklisted Samoa behind our backs. Without donors and remittances, Samoa will be bankrupt by now – as a matter of fact, we are almost there. 

In the past, donors gave large sums of money to help develop Samoa – now they’re giving us peanuts. Now that NZ is blacklisted, when they’re economy goes down, so will the remittance and along with it Samoa’s economy. NZ’s export to Europe per annum is around $20 billion. Imagine that $20 billion removed from their economy – NZ will be doomed and so will be Samoa.

Mebahel Raguel