Samoa's statesman

Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, Prime Minister of Samoa, has been described as running rings around any other Pacific island leader. Photo / Terry Dunleavy

As the island nation celebrates 50 years of independence, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi talks to Terry Dunleavy about his country's political learning curve

Time has been precious this week for Samoa's Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi.

He's been busy in the run-up to the five-day celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the island state's independence, which began with a church service on Thursday evening.

He returned early Tuesday morning from an official visit to Japan, and a caucus meeting with his parliamentary colleagues in the governing Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) went past the 4pm time allocated to me for my exclusive interview with him for the Weekend Herald.

But I was happy to agree to share it with an interviewer from Australia's ABC television.

After we'd finished, my Aussie colleague, ABC TV's South Pacific specialist, on his 10th visit to Samoa after 17 years in Port Moresby, told me: "That guy runs rings around any other Pacific island leader."

AFTER HIS secondary education at St Paul's College, Ponsonby, Tuilaepa went on to University of Auckland, where he became the first Samoan to receive a master's degree in commerce. After a short spell, 1978-80, with the African Caribbean Pacific community group (ACP), he returned home intending to work in the public service.

But soon after, a vacancy occurred in the parliamentary seat of his home district, Lepa, with the death of the sitting member Fatialofa Momoe (father of Auckland rugby personality Peter Fatialofa).

Tuilaepa won the by-election, beginning in 1980 the first of his eight terms so far.

When HRPP, led by Tofilau Eti Alesana, began its unbroken reign as governing party in 1992, Tuilaepa became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

He was the unanimous choice to take over as Prime Minister in 1998, when Tofilau stepped down through ill-health. After 14 years as leader, he assures me he is in it for the long haul.

I ask Tuilaepa about the stability of Samoa in recent years, compared with the troubles that have befallen other South Pacific island states. Without hesitation, he ascribes it to the emergence of political parties.

"Immediately after independence in 1962, governments had to proceed with great care and caution. Up to the time of Tupuola Efi [who was Prime Minister in 1976-82, and is now Head of State, as Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Tufua Tupuola Efi], we didn't have a party system, and development was slow because of the extreme caution as we were learning how to rule.

"It was not easy. We needed to have money to run the Government and taxes were completely new to our people, so we had to move very carefully not to alienate people, and we tended to continue to rely on New Zealand for assistance. Development was very slow.

"Right up to 1979, we had problems with the previous system because once you became the Government with nine ministers, all the other MPs became the opposition, and you could hardly move. After 1982 when HRPP became the Government, and brought in party discipline, people began to change away from focusing on personalities and to concentrate on programmes.

"We have kept on winning elections because we had the support of a majority in Parliament, and we also took on the age-old system of appointing associate ministers and under-secretaries to keep our members happy."

Ongoing stability of political governance was assured last year with the legislature agreeing to change the country's constitution to outlaw party-hopping by MPs.

I ask the Prime Minister about the state of the Samoan economy. He says Samoa has not escaped the consequences of the current global financial difficulties, but the Government has implemented policies to ensure the country lives within its means.

He acknowledges the generosity of donor countries, especially New Zealand, Australia, China and Japan.

"In 1971, we became a member of Asian Development Bank. We never borrowed until 1972, when we became member of IMF; then in 1973, a member of the World Bank; in 1975 we executed the Lome Convention and joined ACP, and in 1976 we became a member of UN. Increasingly between the late 60s and the 70s, we began to expand our horizon, and to take over the responsibilities previously carried by New Zealand. We also had the Treaty of Friendship with New Zealand that helped us a lot, in the sense New Zealand had continued to be responsible for a number of activities that we gradually took over."

Asked whether there is any concern about Samoa's debt levels, for instance the soft loans from China to build the large and striking new administration buildings erected in the last few years, Tuilaepa says the funding of new administration buildings is not part of development partnership arrangements with New Zealand, Australia or any other country. The only exception is China.

For an efficient public service, there has to be an appropriate environment in which officials can do their work, and China has been the only country to offer help. He continues: "I have told leaders of New Zealand and Australia, I hear you expressing concern at the growing influence of China in the Pacific. We brought the Chinese in, we asked them to come in and fill in the gap that New Zealand and Australia cannot do for us. Only very recently Australia built for the first time the police headquarters.

"The Chinese have been extremely flexible with the programmes that we bring to them. Other countries will never touch administration buildings and sports facilities. The Chinese have been very good in being prepared to forgive when warranted. For instance, five years ago, I asked them to help us with our debt problem and they forgave $80 million of earlier loans."

Though Samoa generally supports China in international forums, Tuilaepa says the Chinese respect Samoa's right to make its own decisions, even on occasions when Samoa has to say: "Sorry, we can't support you on this".

Asked about concern expressed in Australia and elsewhere about competition between America and China, Tuilaepa retorts: "It's all rubbish". He says Samoa had asked the US many times for help, without result. He elaborates: "All I can read very clearly is that the US is only interested in areas where wars are fought, so that it can help its industries, its war machine. The US is not interested in the Pacific because it is peaceful. But recently, I have now been informed of American approval to build a hospital for us at the airport. This is the first American aid since the 60s when we had Peace Corps people here."

I tell the Prime Minister of recent comments in Auckland about the possibility of a decline in remittances to Samoa from Samoans abroad. He replies: "Remittances continue to make a very substantial contribution to our foreign exchange earnings. They are usually very close to the same level, 300 million tala, to tourism. It has been said that over time remittances will decline as more and more Samoans are born overseas and will have less affiliation to people back home. It hasn't happened.

"The reason is that the fa'aSamoa [traditional custom] is perpetuated overseas through communities of Samoans everywhere: as soon as two, three, four or five Samoan families get together the next thing they do is talk about forming themselves into a church community, a parish, and frequently in that parish where the cultural lifestyle will be perpetuated, the church centre becomes like a village in Samoa, and matais from different villages will form themselves into a unit and they will make formalised decisions obeyed by every member of that group.

"The young ones who are born there participate in classes every week where they learn their Samoan language and they continue to come over here to the place where their parents come from and they perpetuate their fa'aSamoa in that way."

Terry Dunleavy of Takapuna was editor of the Samoa Bulletin from 1951-58, and reported on the original Independence Day on January 1, 1962.