The court sentences and the number of sexual offences in Samoa show a breakdown in the moral fibre of humanity. A senior judge has said that it is a national shame.

Just over a week ago, a 40-year-old man was sentenced to 15 years in jail for raping his 13-year-old daughter on multiple occasions.

As the court passed its sentence, Judge Justice Vui Clarence Nelson stated that the epidemics of dengue fever and other diseases come and go in Samoa but the epidemic of sexual offending by older men on innocent young females continues to hold this country in its grip.

“National statistics tell us that one in every five Samoan women is raped during her lifetime and two out of every three are subjected to sexual violence or sexual abuse of some sort before the age of 65,” he said while sentencing the man.

“A disproportionately large percentage of victims are young girls. This is a national shame.”

The most number of cases being dealt with by the court are sexual offences and in most cases, the perpetrators are known to the victims, who are often children. Such is the decay gripping society but instead of dealing with it, the matter is never spoken of because it will bring ‘shame’ to the family.

What of the trauma suffered by the child victims? There are 85 children at the Campus of Hope and there are more than that whose cases have not been reported because it would bring shame to the family.

This week, the nation’s biggest church denomination is meeting and heads of the churches from over the world have converged to Malua. There will be discussions on how to move the church forward and how to spread the gospel more meaningfully through various doctrines prepared by expert theologians.

Hopefully, one of the issues that would be raised is how to deal with this pandemic that is morally and spiritually corrupting. It is simply evil and if that is the case all churches in Samoa have a role to play in ensuring the safety of girls in their own homes.

The chiefs and the elders of the village need to drive this conversation in village meetings and allow the young to know what is right behaviour and what is morally unacceptable. Mothers have to teach their daughters to speak out against unwanted behaviour and family members have to be strong enough to report the matter to the police or a village elder.

The village elder also has the responsibility to go to the police. In many cases, village elders try to become mediators, even in the heinous of cases because if word gets out then it will bring shame to the village and the family.

The fear of that shame has been ruining the lives of the children of Samoa and such predatory behaviour by older men goes unpunished.

Recently, the courts have started giving tougher sentences by incarcerating such offenders to longer jail terms. The court is trying to set a deterrent. It is trying to prevent further cases by doing so.

What is being done on a national level and community level to prevent this? Is there conversation during family time, are teachers enabling young girls to know the difference, are women’s committees talking to younger women and girls?

Another judge has said the safety of young vulnerable girls from predatory behaviours of older males needs to be vigilantly protected.

Justice Mata Tuatagaloa has said that for a country that places a lot of emphasis on family, culture and religion, the increase in the number of sexual violations and abuse against young girls in villages and especially within families shows a breakdown in our society and on the innate shared understandings about our cultural values.

“It is from our culture that we place importance on the status of our children, our women, and overall our aiga (family). It is with a heavy heart that such values are very much being threatened. Our community also needs to play a part in advocating against these kinds of crime,” she said in one of her judgements.

“As the three pillars of society that encompass our existence as Samoans – family, culture and religion, we need to step beyond the just “knowing” what is right from wrong, and really go that extra mile and action these thoughts, stand up and protect our young – people in families, leaders and members of churches, and the community as a whole – from grassroots level within villages to established organisations.”

Just because we continue to pretend that there is not a problem, does not mean that the problem has gone away.

Wake up Samoa, and do something about this evil, these heinous acts that are destroying lives and families.