RHD Debate has come down to these two heavyweights, prominent Lawyer Toleafoa Solomona To'ailoa in the left corner and the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, in the right corner.
Lawyer Toleafoa Solomona To’ailoa’s entrance into the debate over the controversial Right Hand Drive policy, has certainly heated the barometer of public attention beyond the casual interest range.
Come Friday at the EFKS Hall it will be crunching. How else to describe the release of pent up opinions in the masses, ever since the RHD policy reared its controversial head?
The way the debate has been conducted so far, is all good. But strains are starting to show as personal mudslinging starts to creep in.
Toleafoa in his Monday press conference rubbished the RHD policy as stupid and insane.
He also described grumbling members of the Government’s Human Rights Protection Party, HRPP, as cowards for not standing up to the Prime Minister in caucus.
The Prime Minister for his part latched on to speculations by Toleafoa that the Government maybe bankrupt, as ignorance unbecoming of a well educated person.
So, they are probably squared on that exchange.
Hopefully this kind of personal tit-for-tat will not distract from a stimulating and constructive debate that is only starting to warm up, between a star politician and a star lawyer.
The clash of two brilliant minds, certainly wets the appetite.
Unfortunately, the fact that this is a non politician taking on a politician, on an issue of huge political significance, reflects poorly on the quality of leadership the opposition in Parliament has been reduced to.
Unrecognised opposition leader in Parliament, MP Asiata Saleimoa, has been agitating in the background, but his opinion should be paid scant attention.
He maybe a lawyer and a politician wrapped up in one, but he ‘cooked his goose’ long before this debate started.
The strength of his opposition lacks credibility on a policy that was one of the key platforms in his party’s bid to woo the support of the voters, in the last general elections.
All PM Tuilaepa has to do to shoot him down, as he did during the media conference, was grab the SDUP election manifesto and wave it around to remind the public about the platform Asiata stood for.
As it stands right now, the Prime Minister has anchored the whole appeal for the RHD policy, on a range of benefits to the country.
The people are being told the cars will be cheaper, it will boost land development and are healthy for the environment, amongst other claims.
With the media holding on to his every word like biblical manna falling from the skies, the PM can rest assured the media he can so easily charmed, will see to it that he gets his slice of support in the cauldron of public opinion.
The gullible and the desperate will certainly cling to every benefit the RHD policy promises to deliver.
The hard core resistance on the other hand, now led by Toleafoa, is not going to be won over that easy, if at all.
Even the business community has made a rare exit from its staunchly conservative shell, and risk its declared apolitical position, to stand firm against the policy.
Smack in the heart of complaints against the policy, and in rejecting the promises by Government as mere sweet talk, is the lack of any cost benefit analysis the PM has at his disposal, to dispute concerns about the $750 million expense bill to the country’s economy.
The business community came up with the estimate in a comprehensive study they did, of the likely economic impact of the transition to RHD.
Government is yet to counter the hard evidence of facts and figures from the study. All they have going is unsubstantiated rhetoric to provide music to the ears of yearning hearts.
The Prime Minister has however promised there will be a Government cost benefit analysis to support the proposed legislation when it comes up in Parliament. What that means is the whole debate will continue to linger until that report comes up.
But there is no guarantee the report will be readily accepted.
The business community and the Toleafoa led public opposition will toothcomb every letter and every numeral in the report with a critical eye, and if it stands up under scrutiny the policy is home and free – but do not bet on it.
Government has set a July deadline next year for the new policy to become law. The HRPP caucus has already approved it, and with the majority they hold, it means the passage of legislation in Parliament will only be a formality.
The only hope now of preventing that from happening is a division inside the HRPP caucus. But that is going to require a mammoth influence of public opinion, to coax the kind of courage Government MP’s will need, to venture out of their comfort zone.
Maybe it is time we see something like that happen. What this country badly needs is not a new Government but a decent opposition.
If by any chance this is the hidden agenda the PM is risking so much to disguise behind the RHD debate, then by all means hide it.
The sacrifice is a noble one, and if indeed it is, it may well save his ‘ goose’ from being cooked too.
What we have now in Parliament are bands of small time bandits planting ineffective opinion bombs and sneaking mosquito bites, against a Government that has already had immunization shots for political malaria, dengue fever and tetanus.
A worthy opposition in Parliament would have prevented the public from being dragged into what is now looming as Hurricane RHD.
Opposition tactics written by JM,
November 30, 2007
I don't want to be the chief advisor to the leader of the opposition, but the most obvious retort to Tuilaepa's 'SDUP manifesto' claims is to respond over and over again that the HRPP did not have anything resembling an intention to switch to RHD in their election manifesto in 2006. It could be argued that they effectively hoodwinked the country by springing this policy on the nation after they were safely elected. Asiata has mumbled something like this, but it has been drowned by the noise of opposition being made by the Chamber of Commerce, Toleafoa and others.
This is what happens when the opposition decides to have a civil war immediately after the election. Their MPs (and former MPs) are still reeling from the annihilation they got at the last election and most of them are still in a vegetative state. Asiata has woken up from his self-inflicted coma to give it a half-hearted blast but I'm afraid the boat has sailed. People are asking where is the opposition party, why aren't they "representing the people"? ....To be fair to Asiata and friends, where were these people at the last election? Why should they care about the business community when most of them voted for the HRPP at the last election? Perhaps Asiata is secretly mumbling: "excuse me? go and whinge to the people you voted in".
However, in my humble opinion, I think the SDUP really does support this policy. And why not? The policy makes sense in the medium-to-long term. There are clear positives here for the country. The valid criticisms of this policy (ie: the insurance premiums) can be rectified by refinements to the legislation as it goes through the parliamentary process.
... written by GC,
November 30, 2007
JM is very poor at arguing a point. If the HRPP didn't have it in their manifesto to introduce this crazy policy, how could people vote against it/them during the last election? This fallacy in reasoning is astounding, but it is always the ploy of those with poor support to introduce irrelevant tangents, conclusions and arguments. The point is to confuse and deflect from the real issue, which is that of the benefits of RHD to this country.
Once again, the great JM is tooting his little RHD horn on the medium-to-long-term positives of this stupid policy, much like the medium-to-long term benefit of getting your "weak" left hand "strong" from shifting gears touted by the PM. This same horn was blown when the policy was announced and its still sounding the same now. When will you get the message that that is like selling ice to Eskimos?
... written by JM,
December 01, 2007
Well, GC, the point was that the people whingeing about the opposition supposedly "not doing their job" providing 'opposition' to the government haven't really got much going for them. How can the opposition 'oppose' government when the people handed the government such an overwhelming majority in parliament to pass legislation?. It is like someone giving soldier A a toy gun and then complaining about the ineffectiveness of soldier A when the tank they gave soldier B rolls over the top of soldier A and his toy gun. This is why the only thing Asiata can say is to call upon HRPP MPs themselves to oppose this legislation. Asiata simply does not have the numbers in parliament to oppose this bit of legislation.
Anyway, that is a tangent.
My main gripe with the CoC submissions is that it is based on the assumption that come July 2008 everyone in the country must immediately get rid of their LHD cars. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Prime Minister has clearly stated that LHD cars can still be driven on the roads until they die a lonely death. Even those LHDs that have been ordered in. There is no need to write off anything. However, if businesspeople want to write off perfectly good assets which are still legally allowed to be used in Samoa, that is their decision. I suspect this is half the problem with that fantastical figure the CoC have spread around the country of $790 million blast to the economy.
The only problem I can see with that is that insurance premiums would go up as the rental people have said. This is where Government can help out by tinkering the legislation.
Safety concerns are overstated in my opinion. Thousands of Samoans immigrate to NZ and Australia. There has not being any spike in car crashes in NZ at least, caused by Samoans habitually driving on the wrong side of the road. The common cause of crashes is drink-driving. Not habitually driving on the wrong side of the road "because I've grown up all my life driving on the right hand side in Samoa, I'm innocent your honour".
SAEIMOA written by Laydee Shaniqua,
February 12, 2008
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This is what happens when the opposition decides to have a civil war immediately after the election. Their MPs (and former MPs) are still reeling from the annihilation they got at the last election and most of them are still in a vegetative state. Asiata has woken up from his self-inflicted coma to give it a half-hearted blast but I'm afraid the boat has sailed. People are asking where is the opposition party, why aren't they "representing the people"? ....To be fair to Asiata and friends, where were these people at the last election? Why should they care about the business community when most of them voted for the HRPP at the last election? Perhaps Asiata is secretly mumbling: "excuse me? go and whinge to the people you voted in".
However, in my humble opinion, I think the SDUP really does support this policy. And why not? The policy makes sense in the medium-to-long term. There are clear positives here for the country. The valid criticisms of this policy (ie: the insurance premiums) can be rectified by refinements to the legislation as it goes through the parliamentary process.