‘Samoa a mess’

Businesswoman Moe Lei Sam has again lashed out at the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, and his administration over the state of the country.

“Samoa is in a mess,” she said. “I see poverty everyday when I look outside the window.

More and more young children are resorting to a life of begging on the streets.

“Our women and young girls are not safe out there, because rapists and murderers are walking around freely when they should be in jail.

“Where is the government?

What are they doing about this?”

The 64-year-old Ms. Lei Sam contacted the Samoa Observer yesterday to express her concerns, after reading a story titled “Dangerous fugitives on the run” on the newspaper’s front page.

The story highlighted concerns about two dangerous prisoners who are at large. One of them, Lauititi Tualima, was recently returned to jail with a longer sentence after he managed to tie up a man and raped his partner at a local tourism accommodation.

The other is Faigame Vaitoelau.

“Where is the Prime Minister?” Ms. Lei Sam asked.

“This is his time. It is his responsibility to lead his administration to clean up Samoa.

Our people are afraid, our women are scared and at times like this, we look to our leaders and yet we don't know where they are.”

It was not possible to obtain a comment from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi yesterday. He is leading the Samoan delegation to the Paris C.O.P 21 meeting in France.

“The problem, I think, is that our leaders are too busy with elections.”

Having lived in Samoa all her life, Ms. Lei Sam said the crime rate in Samoa has never been “this bad”.

“This has never happened before,” she said. “People are no longer scared to kill each other. There is so much theft; there are robberies, rape and all sorts of vile crimes. It’s scary and as a Samoan, I’m scared. I think so many other women share the same feeling.”

Getting back to Prime Minister Tuilaepa, Ms. Lei Sam said he is wasting so much time on “useless things”.

“I think the Prime Minister is too busy pulling other people down and he has neglected his job of dealing with issues that are worrying our people.

“Take, for example, how he ridiculed the former Miss Samoa who has gone to the Miss World. What did she do wrong? She didn't deserve to be put down like that but that’s what our Prime Minister did.

“ I think he should concentrate on dealing with the real issues instead of wasting our time with these other petty issues.”

Asked what the real issues were, Ms. Lei Sam said “poverty” is a real issue.

“My heart sinks every time I look out the window and I see these kids running around at all hours of the day selling stuff. That tells me that our people are so poor and there is so much poverty in Samoa.

“Many of them are nine and eight year olds. It’s heartbreaking.”

She told of an incident last week where two young girls approached her at her shop.

“I looked down and I saw that the pineapples they were selling were bigger than this kid’s head. I became so sad. This is what the future will be like for Samoa.

“So my question again is that, where is our Prime Minister? What are they doing about these things?”

On the issue of safety, Ms.

Lei Sam said it is unfair to blame the Prison Authority and the Police for what is happening.

“Everyone has a role to play but ultimately it has to be the government that takes the lead. If things are a mess at the Prison, it reflects badly on Tuilaepa’s government. It means the government is not functioning well. At the end of the day, the buck stops with them.”

Ms. Lei Sam is a vocal critic of the government and not so long ago had also warned about the future of the country.

“Our ancestors fought for our country to be independent because they wanted a brighter future for our people,” she said. “They would not have envisioned what is going on today.

Samoa is in danger now and we have to do something about it.”