Parliament procedures ignored, says Palu

Parliament procedures have been ignored.

So claims the leader of the Tautua Samoa Party, Palusalue Fa’apo II, describing what appears to be an attempt to ignore recommendations made by a Parliamentary Select Committee in relation to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2014.

“Clearly Parliamentary procedures have been ignored,” Palusalue, who is a member of the Committee in question, told the Samoa Observer yesterday.

“A bill gets tabled in Parliament and once that is done, it is referred to a Parliamentary committee."

“Once the committee has done its report, its recommendations are relayed to Parliament then Parliament will decide."

“But what happened is the Speaker as the Chairman of the Committee had made a request to Fiame (Naomi Mata’afa) if she could discuss the recommendations with the Committee because it is a very sensitive matter. “But instead, the recommendations were given to Cabinet who have rejected it.”

Palusalue said the “clash now is over Parliamentary procedures where recommendations should be relayed for the House to decide instead of being submitted to Cabinet.”

Attempts to get a comment from Fiame, who is the Minister of Justice and the Electoral Office, were not successful.

Her secretary said she was making her way back from a United Nations meeting in Chile, which she had attended. But Palusalue said the situation is disappointing.

Two weeks ago, Speaker of Parliament, La’aulialemalietoa Leuatea Polta’ivao, expressed his disappointment in a letter to Fiame. The Speaker’s displeasure stems from what appears to be an attempt to ignore recommendations made by a Parliamentary Select Committee in relation to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2014.

Tabled by Fiame last year, the Bill proposes to abolish the Individual Voters seats at the next General Election. The bill also includes the requirements for traditional presentations, or o'o, to be performed after the election instead of the current practice.

“Honourable Minister, it is to be admitted that I am currently in a critical situation due to my endless endeavours to appease the claims of dissatisfaction by the Members of the Committee due to the decision of Cabinet as submitted,” La’auli wrote in a letter dated 17 February 2015, addressed to Fiame.

“Members of the Committee find this action most demeaning as they had indeed requested Your Honour for a time to meet with you so you can hear the reasons behind the Committee’s recommendations, you responded that you had to meet your Ministry, and yet Cabinet has now delivered its decision.”

According to the Speaker, Cabinet’s decision refuses all the proposed amendments of the Committee. He compared this to homework being done by students for teachers to mark and yet they are ignored.

“As such where is our parliamentary democracy that we always talk about?” he asked. “Are they merely words for us to enjoy and to be seen from outside as words echoed in the bush?"

“Your Honour, it is to be admitted that the Committee is not perfect but the amendments provided were not done in the Committee’s bedroom, and submitted when they woke up."

“Rather such amendments were based on the submissions of the witnesses who attended on the invitation of the Committee for comments and opinions on the issues from Parliament so to reflect as to which area is supported by the people who are likely to be affected by the Bill."

“This process took many days and not to mention time as the Committee had to carry out its work in Salafai. However, the feeling at the moment is that it is a waste of time and the question is - why bother to bring the work of Government to Committees when it is just a waste of time, instead of Government dealing directly with the Legislative, discuss the same in the Legislative Assembly and that’s it.”

According to Palusalue, Speaker La’aulialemalietoa merely voiced the disappointment of all Committee members.

“Like what the Speaker mentioned in his letter, such matters are dealt with using mutual respect for one another and social relationships,” said Palusalue.

“Our request was to meet with Fiame so we can discuss the recommendations and hear any concerns raised against it.”

Palusalue declined to reveal what those recommendations are. He said the Committee is preparing a report to be submitted to Parliament.

But a source told the Samoa Observer that the Committee’s recommendations were not only ridiculous, they were extremely subjective.

For instance, one of the recommendations involves compulsory voting where failure to do so would result with an instant $200 fine. The source also said the recommendations by the Committee completely changed the tone of the bill, including new clauses they recommended.