The Fasito'o-Tai village has announced zero tolerance for people who use social media to defame others, while declaring support for the Government-of-the-day irrespective of political party.

The position of the village was on show on Wednesday morning when elders from the village met in Apia to perform a traditional ifoga (apology) in front of the Fiame Mata'afa Faumuina Mulinu'u II Building.

The ifoga in the Samoan culture, is a public act of self-humiliation — accompanied by the gift of ‘ie toga or fine mats, speeches of contrition and food — made as a form of apology by one group for the conduct of one of its members to the offended group.

The village mayor of Fasito'o-Tai, Tagoiaena Maotua, said that the village had unanimously agreed to perform the ifoga on Monday this week. 

"The village had a meeting on Monday, it's our usual meeting on the first Monday of every month," said Tagoiaena. "After discussing some of the issues we had within our village, this issue was brought to our attention by members of the village."

The issue, Tagoiaena was referring to, was a social media post which contained vulgar remarks by a man who is from the village of Fasito'o-Tai, attacking Samoa's Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers. 

The social media post called out on the governing Fa'atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (F.A.S.T.) party to resign "because they do not know anything."

Moreover, the man from Fasito'o-Tai also compared Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa's leadership to that of the Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P.), saying that the former administration is better than the current administration. 

The social media post also included swear words aimed at the Prime Minister. 

"The elders of the village were informed of this issue by the people of the village who are on Facebook and then showed us what this man named Manu wrote on Facebook defaming the new Government."

Tagoiaena, who spoke on behalf of the village to formally apologise to Prime Minister Fiame and her Cabinet, said the view of one man does not represent the whole village of Fasito'o-Tai. 

"That is why we are here today," said Tagoiaena. "We did not want to leave it as it is and do something about it because the opinion of one person does not represent the village of Fasito'o-Tai. 

"We want to clear the air that this village is not loyal to a particular party. When it comes to political affairs, we remain neutral and we support the Government of the day. 

"Whether it is the F.A.S.T. party or the Human Rights Protection Party.

"Therefore, we humbly ask for your forgiveness. If what has been said on Facebook by someone from this village has offended you guys in any way, we apologise on his behalf. 

"We give you our full support and we give you our blessings as you step up to lead Samoa for the next five years."

In response, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, La'auli Leuatea Schmidt, who spoke on behalf of the Prime Minister and Cabinet expressed his appreciation for the gesture by the village.

However, La'auli said it was quite sad what happened and the turns of event which prompted the elders of the village to do an ifoga. 

He also expressed his appreciation for the actions of the elders of the village and their support for the new Government.

The village mayor, Tagoiaena also confirmed that the family of the man accused of writing the defamatory posts on Facebook was fined by the village council on Monday. 

The family was asked to provide 100 pigs to the village on Monday. However, according to the village mayor, the family begged the elders for more time to prepare to compensate the village. 

"So we gave them two weeks to provide 100 pigs to the village, which is the usual punishment for cases such as this in the village," Tagoiaena said.

"However, if they fail to deliver what the village asked of them, we will have no choice but to banish them from the village. 

"The family also contributed and gave us a fine mat (ietoga) for the ifoga this morning."

Close to twenty matai and women from Fasito'o-Tai traveled to Apia to perform to deliver the traditional apology to Fiame and her Cabinet. 

At 10.00am the high chiefs of the village were covered by a fine mat (ietoga) outside the Government building. 

However, La'auli immediately walked to them and removed the fine mat before inviting them into the building, just as the Prime Minister and other Cabinet Ministers had arrived. 

They all assembled inside on the ground floor of the Government building for the formalities.