Western Samoa's

Maiden Speech By Late Head Of State's Son

Parliament

Under Fire

From R. F. Rankin in Apia A great deal of interest was centred on the Western Samoan parliament early in June when Tufuga Eft made his maiden speech. Efi is the son of Tupa Tamasese Mea’ole, the Joint Head of State who died in 1962.

"LX)RMERLY a law student at -T Victoria University, Wellington, NZ, Efi was elected to parliament as member for Vaisigano No. 1 in Savaii in May last year. This is the same district from which he received the Tufuga title.

His speech received wide acclaim.

He began by saying that nowhere except in Russia would his father’s portrait have been removed from display so quickly after his death.

Then he claimed that over the past few years Cabinet had shown a flagrant disregard of the wishes and rights of Parliament, and in its assumption of sovereignty had even endangered the rights of individuals.

Tracing the historical development of the parliamentary system, Efi said that Cabinet should rightly be merely a committee of parliament.

However, in Western Samoa, Cabinet had taken so much upon itself that parliament had become merely a “consultative rather than a deliberative body”.

He cited cases of Cabinet’s dis regard of parliament.

“One wonders whether parliament is regarded as incompetent to deal with matters affecting the vital interests of the people,” he said.

As a major example of the blatant disregard of parliament, he cited the Treaty of Friendship with New Zealand. He claimed that this had never been discussed or approved by members and had been entered into entirely upon the initiative of Cabinet.

Somewhat similar criticisms of Cabinet were made several years ago by a constitutional adviser, Professor I. W. Davidson, who said that the attitude of Cabinet was creating a gulf between parliament and itself.