We are ready to face the consequences

Dear Editor,

I write regarding the letter by a so-called Tofaeono Joseph of Palisi who from reading his paragraph upon paragraph of rubbish letter bad mouthing Rev Vavatau showed the type of person he is (which I rather not comment on).

I contemplated whether not to reply to his ridiculous letter but because of the good name of our E.F.K.S. church I have decided to reply to his lengthy babblings in the shortest way possible. First of all it is clear from your statements that you are not a member of our congregation, not only attacking our General Secretary but you have ridiculed the name of our congregation’s annual conference title ‘FONOTELE’.  That is the lowest act any human being can do, is make a joke out of things which others hold in the highest regard.  

Secondly, you claim that the tax law was passed democratically but let me ask you, our government…how many parties make up this so called democratic government? The H.R.P.P. are running this country, they make the laws and they pass it without any opposition.  Well guess what…we may not have an opposition party, we now have an opposition country.

If the Prime Minister is willing to divide up this country to pay his debts to China then so be it.  We stand with our church leaders they are our voice and we are ready to pay the consequences.

Thirdly, you claim that pastors do not pay taxes.  Are you so ignorant and uneducated, pastors’ pay taxes with the products and produces they buy from the stores every day! It’s called V.A.G.S.T., they have electricity and water bills to pay, their private cars are registered every year, when they travel they pay airport taxes.

When relatives send over containers from overseas they pay all the wharf, customs and quarantine taxes.  Not to mention they have children working in the government and private sectors also paying taxes. So tell me, are they paying taxes or not.

Lastly, yes it is true that we can twist the Word of God to suit our agenda, which is why I will refrain from doing just that.  However, the claim that church goers are being pressured to give to the church because offerings are being read out is just ridiculous.  I too am a member of the church and everyone in our church gives because we know that what we receive daily is from God and so we give back to God’s ministry and in turn we are blessed.

The money that I give to my faifeau “already taxed I might add” is my offering to God, and here we have the government demanding that my offering to God be brought back so that they can have a piece of God’s money.  This is just laughable, Mr Prime Minister you claim to be a reader of the bible let me just point you to 1 Samuel 2:12-17 and read what happens to those who want to eat some of the fat of God’s offering.

I would like to end by listing all the many great contributions our faifeaus are making in our country for the reason that so many are now painting them all black because of their opposition to the tax law.  But I won’t because I do not want to bore the readers as Tofaeono’s letter did me after reading the 100th paragraph.

But let me end with Mr PM’s statement in one of his interviews, when asked the purpose of the faifeau tax law, he replied “se’i fai se sao a faifeau mo le atunuu.”  Without the faifeaus, Mr PM working on the spirituality of your country you would have long suffered ISIS like protests and attacks at your doorstep. Take a look at the Salelavalu and Salelologa chaos and get some perspective.

Fa’afetai.

 

Leutogitupaitea Seiuli

Samoa Observer

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