Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa stated last Thursday, "What's not working? Tell me." This was her response to the suggestion that the friction in the ruling Fa'atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) Party had impacted government services.

She is correct in saying that the government services have continued as normal. The division has not impacted the way civil service has been working, there have been no job losses, no civil servants are towing a political line at work, people are still getting treated at the hospital, the courts are working, and government offices are open for business as usual.

We agree that those have not been affected by the political chaos that happened in January. The things that are ‘not working’ have been that way ever since and in the last four years nothing has improved and it will certainly not improve in the final year before elections.

The probability of this is higher now with a fractured government. Getting things to happen in Parliament will be tougher.

What is not working as it should be is the health system. We are forever compounded by the lack of medical doctors and nurses. This is the reason why districts cannot have their hospitals. The big hospital in Motootua is not in good shape. There are structural concerns, expensive equipment is sometimes non-operational due to a lack of specialists, and sometimes there are not enough beds in wards. Nurses' pay is also of concern.

In the education sector, the pass rate of students who have just completed their national exams is of concern showing that a change in the education system is needed because a few things being done now are not working. There are children in colleges still unable to read properly.

Disabled children with mobility issues and capable of learning in a normal classroom cannot get enrolment in a ‘normal’ school because they lack basic infrastructure to support these students. Most disabled children cannot access education.

The cost of sending children to school is getting higher every year. More than 600 children were unable to access exam results because of unpaid exam fees. We hear a lot of talk about getting more children in school and making education accessible. What is wrong is that we get all these policies that are launched but never implemented.

Just like the law on compulsory education. The law is there but children are not in school. There are more children now vending in the streets than a year ago. We cannot put these children into school because their parents will use poverty as a reason to have them continue selling on the street.

Meth continues to come into the and even if the government has not acknowledged it, organised crime rings seem to be responsible for this. Illegal guns are still coming in and gun crimes are happening regularly. That’s what is wrong.

There is no seamless supply of electricity to some areas as constant power cuts are felt. Not all water in the pipeline can be consumed.

Most foods are being imported. The agriculture and fisheries strategies and plans to increase local production are not working. There is a shortage of food every time the cargo ships are delayed. It is cheaper to buy canned fish than fresh fish.

Our elected leaders have had the notion that the people work for them. Some even feel they are above the law. Isn’t this what led to the current impasse in the FAST government? Government leaders and offices do not feel the need to provide information when questioned showing how transparency and accountability are not given high regard.

What is wrong is how none of the financial records of any of the district councils for using the $1 million grants have ever been made public. It is also wrong that none of the cabinet ministers were ever taken to task for signing deals with the Chinese ‘stock exchange’ companies or nobody was taken to task for the foreign relations nightmare when government officials passed through the airport without security checks.

It is also wrong that there is a two-headed judiciary and because there is no Appeals Court for the Land Titles Court and because of that all LTC appeals are piling up. It is also wrong that there are not enough lawyers in the Attorney General’s office.

It is also wrong that matai can still banish people for asking questions and asking for accountability during a district council meeting. It is also wrong that we have a culture of silence where people try and hide cases of sexual abuse because it brings shame.

If to suggest that the government machinery is working as normal as before without considering that these fixes are needed, then nothing is right in the first place.