Samoa has eight business hours today to make a u-turn and restore confidence in our constitutional democracy, after close to three months of sustained attacks on the foundations of our nation, led by a caretaker Prime Minister who has refused to concede defeat after a general election.

Tuilaepa Dr. Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, the sixth and longest serving Prime Minister of Samoa and currently caretaker, had seven days to make amends for all the damage he single handedly wrought on this nation of close to 200,000 people in recent months after the Supreme Court ruled last Monday that “all actors” of State ensure that the XVII Legislative Assembly is convened in seven days.

And here we are, seven days after the Court handed down its judgement, and there hasn’t been an iota of movement within the corridors of the Parliament at Mulinu’u to suggest that that long-awaited sitting of the Parliament will go ahead.

But wait, at around 10pm last night the Head of State, His Highness Tuimaleali’ifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II finally broke his silence on Samoa’s constitutional crisis, in a televised address on TV1 to the nation.

The Head of State said the Court has no jurisdiction to convene the Parliament and he alone has the powers to set the time and place for the House to sit.

“The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to order the convening of Parliament as I, the Head of State of the Independent State of Samoa, have the powers to appoint the time and place for the meeting of the Legislative Assembly,” he said in his special announcement that was televised on TV1.

All the while Tuilaepa and his lieutenants have been slogging away on television, radio and their Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P.) Facebook page in recent days – in a futile attempt to change the narrative on the legality of their actions – while conveniently forgetting that it was by virtue of their failure to uphold and implement the Court’s orders of 23 May 2021 that escalated this constitutional crisis, after both the Supreme Court and later the Court of Appeal nullified their attempts to usurp power using the Office of the Electoral Commission and the Office of the Head of State.

And the H.R.P.P. propaganda machine continues to work in overdrive, if recent comments by the party’s secretary Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi and lawyer Maiava Visekota Peteru are any indication.

Lealailepule tried to use his party’s Facebook page last Thursday to sell the idea that the application by the Attorney General Savalenoa Mareva Betham-Annandale, against the 24 May 2021 Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (F.A.S.T.) party-led swearing-in had nothing to do with the H.R.P.P. and was solely the decision of the “government’s top lawyer on behalf of the government, not the party.”

Nice try Lealailepule. Who does the Attorney General Savalenoa currently report to? Tuilaepa. And who does Tuilaepa report to? Well, no one, if the current circumstances that this country finds itself in is any indication.

So if Lealailepule and all H.R.P.P. faithful to continue to believe and propagate Tuilaepa’s misinformation, that the Head of State is all powerful and vested with powers that are beyond the Supreme Court and Appellate Court’s jurisdiction, than truth be told Samoa would not be the constitutional democracy it is today where everyone enjoys freedoms that come with a State that embraces the separation of powers, promotes and effects checks and balances in government, upholds due process and believes in leadership through free and fair elections.

Furthermore note the callousness of the recent statements by Maiava, who publicly questioned the rationale of the Supreme Court’s decision that gave a seven-day deadline for the Parliament to convene recently, defying a memo sent out to all lawyers in May this year that reminded counsels of their duty “to uphold the integrity of the Court” and maintain the highest level of respect towards the judiciary.

Yet again, another example of a H.R.P.P. connected lawyer, who chose to twist facts relating to the events of Monday 24 May 2021, which by the way came as a result of the caretaker Prime Minister and H.R.P.P. leader’s refusal for the Parliament to sit.

It is obvious Maiava and others in her party are keen on creating a reality that would reinstate the H.R.P.P. Government to its former glory and maintain the status quo. But in the process disregard the votes of thousands of Samoan voters who wanted a change of government and voted for the F.A.S.T. party.

The Law Society of Samoa should take note of all this misinformation being propagated to the wider public by its members, which not only tarnishes the integrity of the judiciary but also leads to the long-term loss of public confidence in the Courts.

But the conduct of irresponsible lawyers and politicians aside, there are bigger implications for our democracy and our nation with the seventh day deadline of the Supreme Court now upon us.

Can Samoa continue to call itself a constitutional democracy after today when and if the 51-seat Legislative Assembly isn’t convened in line with the orders of the Supreme Court?

And why should one man continue to hold this nation of under 200,000 people to ransom simply because he didn’t like the outcome of a general election that was conducted in the true spirit of a free-and-fair election?

In retrospect the Supreme Court, in its wisdom, gave all the relevant actors charged with the responsibility to enable the convening of the House seven days to effect that judgement.

But the writing is on the wall, in terms of where we are heading with the Court’s judgement, and every time publicly-appointed officials choose to defy the Court’s orders then it should become their undoing.

It is incredulous that public officials such as the Head of State, the Attorney-General, the Clerk of Parliament, the Electoral Commissioner and the caretaker Prime Minister himself forget that they swore oaths of office to fulfill the duties of their public offices according to the law.

And all laws in a constitutional democracy such as Samoa come under the umbrella of the Constitution of Samoa of which the Supreme Court as the final arbiter has mandate as the guardian and interpreter.

In the 59 years of Samoa’s evolving democratic state, no public officials swore oaths of office to Tuilaepa or any other Prime Minister or head of government before him, they swore their oaths of office to the law and ultimately the Constitution and the people it protects and serves.

So here we are, yet again in the last three months and seven days after another judgement by the Supreme Court, and it appears public officials are conflicted in their loyalty to the law and to one man who has been in power for over two decades.

The solution is simple: if you feel obligated and loyal to one man other than the Constitution, then you are obviously not cut out for the job, and your resignation should be on the table to protect the integrity of the office.