This is what the Leader of FAST wanted to say in Parliament last week but couldn’t because he didn’t catch the attention of the Speaker:

“When I installed the Speaker in the Chair, I had orders for him to watch my lips, my eyes, my mumblings, and listen intently to the tone of my voice every time I take the floor, so he wouldn’t miss what I say or any of my signals. 

There were numerous attacks directed at me last week by the former Prime Minister and the Opposition that the Speaker could have stopped but didn’t. Totally disappointed. Worst was the accusation that 400 acres of land at Togitogina that we are purportedly leasing to the government of American Samoa to graze their Angus breed livestock to arrive from Australia soon. 

When Prime Minister Fiamē was asked by the former Prime Minister that I deposed, (what’s his name again, oh yeah, Tuilakepa. I think he’s Tongan, isn’t he?), I was really disappointed she didn’t vigorously defend me. Instead, she threw her hands up in the air and said, “I don’t know anything about it.” She could have said, “It’s a great idea because some of those Angus beef steaks will eventually find their way to my table and my ministers’ tables since it’s our people who are going to look after the farm.” She could have lied, and no one would have known. Moreover, we would have all stood behind her and lied in unison. As one of our ministers from a Faleata constituency said in Parliament, “It is part of our ‘Collective Responsibility’.” 

When representatives of American Samoa were here last year for the Atoa Samoa get together, my constituency hosted them for a day. They presented us with gifts worth thousands of dollars. You see, this is the spirit of the Fa’a-Samoa that I love; the give and take part, especially the take part. And some of my MPs have been quick in picking that up. You do have to give sometimes, but not as much as you take. I think the English have a word for it: Recipe? Resitopsy? Ah, reciprocity. And if you’re good at Latin like me, it’s called squid pro quote, I think. We have to give our cousins from American Samoa something back, hence, the 400 acres. No comparison to what they gave my constituency. And we have acres and acres of land to spare. It does not matter whether the land belongs to the Government or the people of Falealili. It’s the spirit of giving that’s important, well, as long as the land given is not Sasina’s.

You see, I’m not only the Minister of Agriculture - agriculture is my specialty of course - I’m also the Leader of FAST, and FAST is the Government; I’m therefore the Leader of the Government. Or as some people would like to say, “I am the Government.” As such, I appoint the Prime Minister who in turn appoints her Cabinet. Except me of course. I can take whatever portfolio I choose. And I chose Agriculture. The Prime Minister is the Leader of the Cabinet only, like in all other Democrisis? Democrazies? Oh, I know, Democracies. 

I’m glad I grew up a Catholic, I got to understand a bit of Latin. I learnt that the word agriculture comes from Latin – agri means field, and culture comes from cultivation, hence the term agriculture. I didn’t want to tell the Prime Minister about the lease because she wouldn’t understand. In addition, she’s got a very busy schedule already as her specialty is agri-travel. And she’s doing a great job of it.

I and the FAST Government are committed to improving our agricultural production. That’s the reason we gave each constituency a $1m. grant - to help develop their land, livestock and other developments that will make them self-reliant instead of relying on imports. It’s a self-help scheme where individuals choose what they need and the Committee dishing out the grant money will help them with their wish list. There have been some instances where a rogue MP or Committee Official construes the term self-help to mean helping themselves to the grant and stuff everyone else. (The media recently reported one such incident where an MP on the Committee helped himself to $175,000.) If I were one of his constituents, I wouldn’t worry too much about it as they’ve got another $1 million coming and maybe a further one, a general elections sweetener, just before voting in the 2026 elections.

And if we run short of funds, we can always re-instate the Chairman of the Board of Samoa National Provident Fund (SNPF) and tell him to give us a $60m. interest free loan that can be later waived.”

Leader of the Government