Fat Lady Yet To Sing In RHD Protest

Written by Pio Sioa
Thursday, 17 April 2008
If there was any defining moment for the RHD Monday protest, it was the irony of the protesters loudly cheering hoorays snd singing happy 63rd birthday to the Prime Minister Tuilaepa Saileleol Malielegaoi. The emotions went hayfire when the Chairman of PASS suddenly popped the special moment to surprise even the Speaker Tolofuaivalelei who accused the innocent nearby members of the media of telling. The coincidence was a deft touch Toleafoa exploited so well, it was a winning touch for any jury to be impressed; even some of the hardened members of the media corp were nodding approval. The PM and his unrelentless RHD stance made him public enemy number one. Yet for a brief moment the protesters set aside their aversion to his hardnosed posturing, to acknowledge his day to celebrate. The build up to the moment was well smoothed out by the oratory skills of the Speaker of the House, who was in his elements with his oratorical rhetoric, to pacify and softened up the thousands who had walked and sat in the sun all morning. By the time leader of the protest spoke, it was on equal par and with the deference and humility that is in keeping with the protocols of the culture. Toleafoa did not aggresively assert the concerns of the protesters or accused Parliament of turning a deaf ear to the voice of the dissenting masses. He did however urged the Prime Minister and members of his party to consider the wishes of the people who put them there. If that was seen as too assertive, he more than made up for it by calling on the protesters to champion the PM as the country’s leader, by acknowledging his day of birth. Thus it ended. It was an historical moment to add to the many that has made the Malae o Tiafau a hallowed ground, the place where the nationhood of Samoa was born more than 40 years ago. The RHD history however remains unfinished. Much is still left to be written. The final vote on the legislation that the protesters appealed against is yet to be put through the final vote in the House. Th leader of the protest feels they have taken the fight as far as it is legally permissable. Where and how it will end for PASS is uncertain until they determine a new course to take other than the judicial review to be argued in court. Toleafoa is confident the court will allow the PASS motion to be heard despite effort by the Attorney General for a strike out. If it goes into hearing and the PASS argument is successful, it will be a benchmark decision that will provide a precedent for other protests in the future. Toleafoa however will need all his court skills and legal support from his team of PASS lawyers to pull it off. If not the whole RHD argument will be back to square one. What is square one? Government support of the road switch stands and we will all be driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road by the second half of 2009. PASS is looking to provide a monitoring role, so they will not be entirely out of the picture. Government will remain wary of that. Any slip up and they can look forward to a public hounding that will haunt them all the way to the 2011 general elections. The once unassailable rule of the Human Rights Protection Party since the late Prime Minister Tofilau passed the reins of leadership off to PM Tuilaepa is starting to show cracks under the RHD protest assault. There are those in the party who have held on, not necessarily out of loyalty, but more to do with the reluctance to let go of the comfort zone the party has provided for them. But what the RHD protest has managed to achieve that no other protesting bodies in the past has exploited, was to take the MPs to task by calling on voters who voted them into Parliament to put pressure on them. Government lost 2 of its members as a direct result. More were hanging on the fringes but were cleverly roped back in. What is in store in the next general elections will be anyone’s guess as usual, but if by then the Government’s road switch policy has not delievered on the promises it has made, the RHD could become their Achilles heel. From here on until 2011 the PM and his party would do well to wish for a favourable wind of events to cleanse the bitter after taste of the RHD protest. As the leader of the protest said; “The Prime Minister is not getting any younger so if it is time for change and God wills it, then there will be change whether the Human Rights Protection Party likes it or not.” Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Polls

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

Google Satellite Map of Eveni Carruthers

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

"Where the natives buy and sell"

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

Latest Comments

World Court Is Only Extradition Doorway From Samoa...
Samoangal funny how many people see how you always try to put your country down. Someday you will b...

Up and Down, Dude!
Banning the village from going to town is a bit harsh, even the person with the store at the village...

Up and Down, Dude!
E mafai foi ga fai melting pots i ku'a mo le kupulaga malo vale e sisiva ma kaa kaa ai,,e iloa ai le...

Up and Down, Dude!
Sole. kusa lava pe maua uma mea i faleoloa i kua, e kaugofie lava Apia, asiasi ia Frankie, Molesi, A...

I Gave It My Hardest, Miss Samoa

I think you did a great job. God Bless in everything you do. pretty from american samoa

Social Network

Join the Newsline Team on Bebo

www.bebo.com/newslineS

Become part of the Newsline Bebo Network

Get News via your Email

Subscribe to Samoa Live News Headlines by Email

Get the Latest News on your Blackberry or PDA

Subscribe in a reader

Sounds from Samoa

Listen to broadcasts from LiveSamoa.com
Courtesy of Plantation Feet, SBC(540am) and
Radio Polynesia(99.9 FM)

http://www.samoalive.com/sliveradio.asx

Live on Weekdays from 8am to 9am

Have your Say

We want your Opinion

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
If you would like to submit a letter for possible
publication in the print edition of the Newsline,
please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

We want your News

Submit News from your Area
If you would like to submit News for possible
publication in both the online and print version
of Newsline please feel free to email us
at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Become a News Blogger
Have a passion for writing? Interested in
writing articles for Newsline? Email us
at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
We are looking for Bloggers from
around the world to contribute to our site.