If you are a Samoan citizen residing in Samoa with functioning common sense, then there is no need to panic about the current political situation. Political party internal conflict is a norm in every democracy. A recent example in the Pacific is Tonga. The Kingdom’s former Prime Minister, Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, resigned from his office late last year due to party conflict.

As a citizen of this country, I am excited about the current political situation for many reasons. In particular, we can learn and grow from this experience as a maturing democracy. In the early 1980s, the government was in a similar situation. Government leadership was changed three times within a short time due to political conflict and party-hopping. We learned from such experience and now a law is in place to ban party-hopping.

Following the general election in 2021, we also experienced another political situation. In that case, it was more of a constitutional crisis. But we managed to dig ourselves out of it. One of the lessons that we learned from that crisis is to respect the rule of law.

And now, we are facing another political situation which is caused by internal friction between two wings in the FAST party. One side is the Prime Minister and her colleagues who stand with her on enforcing the rule of law, integrity and trust in government while be other wing is led by the former Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and Chairman of the party. Their position while a shifting goalpost, it is apparent that they do not favour adhering to the rule of law.

The other reason why the current political kerfuffle is exciting is because we, the right-thinking citizens now get to see the true colour of politicians in the ruling party. It’s like a separation of a herd of black and white sheep. The right wing consists of white sheep that are law-abiding and follow the rule of law while the other corner consists of black sheep that are law-breakers and refuse to be held accountable.

So, what can we learn from this situation and how to move forward? Like any other policy matter, it is important to find out what the problem is. With the information on hand, it is apparent that the problem is about not respecting the rule of law.

In a normal democracy where politicians respect the rule of law, the former Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries once charged by the Police would resign respectfully and await the outcome of his court case. If he is cleared in the end, he can make a case to reclaim his ministerial post.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. The former Minister and Chairman of the party refused to step down forcing the Prime Minister to exercise her constitutional authority to sack the former Minister and later on the other three Ministers on the ground of trust.

Matters got worse when the former Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and party chairman, together with his followers, decided to terminate the Prime Minister and her cohort from the party. This means the ruling party of 35 members is now in a split, and therefore, a situation arises where there is no single majority party that holds the majority of seats in Parliament.

When Parliament sits on Tuesday 21st January, its members will face two main options: a snap election or a coalition government. The first option is a common practice in matured democracies. Vanuatu is currently going through its snap election while France just had one.

A snap election is normally conducted when the ruling party attempts to take advantage of a political opportunity or resolve a parliament deadlock. In the case of Samoa, it appears the Parliament is in a stalemate. No single party holds the majority of Parliament.

Therefore, calling a national election in advance is an option worth considering. It means Parliament is going back earlier than scheduled to the people of this country to decide which party or group should rule the country on their behalf.

While this sounds like a genuine option to resolve the current political impasse, there are concerns that parliamentarians of this country should seriously consider. In particular, the majority of average voters are not in the right frame of mind to vote freely and independently. There is a lot of negative emotion out there at the moment among the voters based on social media readings. They would not vote for issues like respecting the rule of law, integrity of government and good governance. Voting would be influenced by emotions. The danger of such behaviour is that voters would end up choosing the wrong people to lead this country.

With such a hostile environment, going to the polls at this stage is in danger of violence and political instability. The current situation is more fragile than what happened following the general election in 2021. This country cannot afford to slide into anarchy due to negative economic and social implications. Fiji remains the classic example in the region of the adverse impact of political instability.

Rushing things through at this stage just after the Commonwealth meeting late last year does not make this country look good in the eyes of Commonwealth countries and development partners, especially when good governance and political stability were prominent in the meeting.

In essence, to go into an early election just because one person refuses to respect the rule of law does not sound right. Why should the citizens of this country burdened by the cost of a snap election because a senior politician refuses to respect the law? It’s a ridiculous justification for a snap election.

A coalition government's second option is the most practical alternative to resolve the current political situation. The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) plays a major role in this arrangement. It is important to realise that political stability, peace and harmony are the most important values for every Samoan citizen.

The people of this country would like to see the government sail through this year peacefully until the next election. That should be the ultimate purpose of the coalition because that is the people's will.

Such values should guide politicians in the HRPP camp and those supporting the Prime Minister. They should put behind any political hangovers, personal interests and political opportunities and form a coalition in order to save the country.

A coalition is the most feasible option at this stage to maintain law and order and political stability. Social media is the main driver of political instability at the moment, and that is why it is important to calm things down before the polls next year, as scheduled.

A coalition also gives wider participation in the policy choices of the government of the day and wider representation of the country in policy-making. If properly executed, both parties will come back stronger after the next election.

This week shapes up to be an interesting and exciting week for politics in our motherland. The situation presents a litmus test for our political leaders. The outcome of this political situation would also expose whether our political leaders are inspired by the people’s will or their interests.