P.M. scoffs at call

By Lanuola Tusani Tupufia 15 January 2016, 12:00AM

Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, has scoffed at a call for him to step down.

The call was made by the Tautua Samoa Party’s Shadow Minister of Finance, Afualo Dr. Wood Salele, who said the Prime Minister has been in power for too long and he has run out of ideas to run the country. 

Asked for a comment yesterday, Tuilaepa said Afualo is a man who depends on his academic intelligence. 

As for him, when it comes to running the country, he doesn’t always have ideas. 

But when he needs them, he asks God.

 “Afualo thinks he has plenty of ideas,” said Tuilaepa. “But for me, I don’t have ideas, they just come up. I ask God to give me some ideas.”

He pointed to a meeting of Senators of the United States of America where the President called on a Senator from American Samoa to conclude the day with a prayer. 

“He stood up and said, Lord give me some ideas to help tackle these problems,” Tuilaepa said.

“That is how it is. If I sit here and have no ideas, I say please Lord give me ideas.” 

In criticising the Prime Minister, Afualo said the government’s initiatives are not new.

 “What we are seeing time and time again (from the government) is nothing new,” said Afualo. 

“It’s just the retouching of old policies that they have had for many years.”

The Shadow Minister made the comments in response to Tuilaepa’s claim on the Tautua Samoa Party’s election battle plan being weak. The Prime Minister had also accused the Tautua Party of copying the government’s indicatives.

Afualo disagreed.

 “This is a new vision and a new thinking,” he said of the policies they announced last week, which focuses on equal opportunities for Samoans right across the country. 

In assessing the performance of the H.R.P.P during the past thirty plus years, Afualo said they have done a lot to develop the country in terms of infrastructure.

But they have failed when it comes to social equality and people development.

“If we to sit down and statistically analyze the thirty plus years (of H.R.P.P rule) then Samoa should not have been like this. It should have been a much better Samoa.”

(More from the Prime Minister in tomorrow’s Samoa Observer.)

By Lanuola Tusani Tupufia 15 January 2016, 12:00AM
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