The Tautua Samoa Party’s Shadow Minister of Finance, Afualo Dr. Wood Salele, has a simple solution to Samoa’s growing crime problem.
He wants the government to diversify the development of the country and not just centralise in Apia. In doing so, the people would not migrate to Apia and the crime rate would not be a worry.
Afualo made the point during a press conference yesterday.
For this week alone, Police confirmed more than eight cases of theft and break-ins. There were two more cases reported to their outposts in Tuasivi, Savai’i and Lotofaga. Criminal cases involving thefts and robbery are not confined to residential homes in villages and townships. Police are concerned with an alarming rate of theft cases at work places and elsewhere that are reported to them on a weekly basis.
Afualo said that because there were no developments outside Apia and Vaitele, apart from tourism resorts, people were flocking to these areas in search of employment.
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But in providing similar services available in town, for the residents in the rural areas and also at Savaii, people would stop migrating.
Afualo also urged government to look at raising the minimum income from $2 to $5 an hour. He expects that others can argue that it will hurt the business community, but he believes, Samoa is now a service sector type of country. Most jobs are in the service industry, so the minimum wage does not have a bearing on that.
“The only challenge we’re now facing from it is the exploitation of the labour and the skills but we need to make sure they get the right market value of their labour, which is I believe, if we are to go by GDP figures, the minimum wage should be at $5 an hour.”
Afualo said that if estimates are sitting now at 1.7 billion GDP, divide that by about 200,000, that’s your per capita which is about 8000 divided by the number of working days.
Despite this, Afualo does not believe Government will change the minimum wage as it would affect the private sector. “But we need to look at how the economy grows. Meanwhile the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger and bigger, because the rates are still sitting down.
“If that is the case ... we’re seeing a lot of crime because crime is coming up to fill that gap, because people want to sustain their livelihoods but how can they sustain without the means. And if there is nowhere to get that means, then they have to steal and break the law to get that means.”
Also despite the Government policy to complete school at your area of residency before moving to Upolu for university, more and more families are bringing their children to attend the colleges here.
“Because they know there is a difference in terms of results and quality of education delivered.” And if it works out and one secures a job, then it’s worthwhile. However, Afualo said, most families that migrate end up squatting. Some rely on street vending and some break the law. This is a direct impact of the high cost of living.
He said that Government needed social policies to cater for this growing gap in society. These people want to live around Apia and that was the only way to sustain their livelihoods.
And although there is free education in Samoa, the family still needs an income for daily needs such as food.
“That is where the problem is and then you end up with people resorting to whatever they can get their hands on. Part of this crime increase is accrued to the prisoners but whose fault is that? Some of these good citizens have never committed crimes but because of the dire situations they are in, they are forced to. And they end up there.”
Afualo said that the numbers keeps increasing and it is not a good sign for any society when the numbers of prisoners rise.
“And it does give us a good peak into the correlation between crime and the developments. If the numbers go up significantly for whatever crimes, it correlates with the cost of living that goes up.”
Samoa’s national debts of more than a billion Tala is also to blame. When you do the math, each person will be required to pay 5000 tala per head. In Samoa, an average household is about six persons, maybe more, which means they have to pay $30,000.
“Most of the households are below the poverty line. Most of them are nowhere near this 30,000 income. Most are at 3000 per annum.
“This is just overwhelmingly unsustainable and it’s an extraordinary burden on the families as well.”
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