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Previous Letters

• 2nd Qtr 2008
• 1st Qtr 2008
• 4th Qtr 2007
• 3rd Qtr 2007
• 2rd Qtr 2007

"Incest Sexual Abused"

My deepest sympathy goes to the innocent young woman who was recently raped by her father and uncle. I commend her courage to disclose of this horrible and difficult ordeal. The community is outraged about this incident and many perhaps are asking why this young lady was allowed to live in such a home environment where she is at risk under the circumstance. Why is the young lady not living with her mother? There are many open questions that need answers as to address the home and family living arrangement. Obviously, there are also precipitating factors in this case, that are attributable to the cause of such a deplorable behavior by the sexual perpetrators and for the young lady to be placed in a vulnerable situation.

As a community, "did we overlook our responsibility as neighbors, teachers, clergy, professionals, etc, to report any suspected child sexual abuse to the authorities as mandated in our child protection statues?" I suppose this young lady attends one of our community schools and may have a trail of behavioral dynamics that associate with attendance, tardiness, questionable academic performance etc, that could have given any clear indication of high risk at home and would a cause for a report to social services. In my humble opinion, our community network has also let this young lady down.

Of course, we can also blame the parents, especially, mothers are expected to teach their daughters self-protective and modest behaviors in the home as a matter of prevention and privacy. At the same time, we expect fathers to play a major role in protecting their daughters from any harm, unnecessary intrusion.

In this particular case, the father's reaction and behavior is least expected by the community and what he did to his own daughter is a reflection of poor moral judgment and self control. This kind of behavior can usually be forecasted as it manifests in several forms that would indicate to others there is something suspicious may unravel in due course. It is however, very difficult for an untrained or lay person to detect this kind of susceptible manifestations. Those who are oblivious to do what is necessary to protect an innocent child need to become familiar with the law. When you call in a suspected child abuse report to the child protective agency or police, your name will not be disclosed.

Your act of good faith and responsible intentions might help save a child from being a victim of sexual abuse. Just imagine if someone who has knowledge or suspicion of the high risks this young lady has been subjected, given the questionable home environment and living arrangement that we now know, if this person had taken action and file a suspicious report of child abuse, this young lady could have been protected from this sexual abuse dilemma. This is the least a member of the community would do.

We have no control over the perpetrator's behavior and the difficult emotional and psychological disarray until he/she looses self control and become vulnerable to expose or act it the lascivious nature of the act. These two perpetrators may be are just a tip of the iceberg of how many more prospective perpetrators who are in the same time-bomb predicament that only in time and opportunity to commit the same crime against young children and others. Given the easy access provided by the internet, anyone can fused his or her sexual instincts and by pornography at a click on the button. Even our young children could do the same thing. The media, pornographic material and magazines in our local community do not help either. If our people continue to be exposed to these materials the sexual relation problems will continue to increase in AS.

This is more likely that AS is in great need to have a Doctor who specialize in these kind of cases to assist and counsel our people who are crying out for help. We could only imagine how many more cases like this in our territory that needs to be explored.

Our local legislators need to be pro active and pass a bill or amendment to bring a doctor in our territory who specializes to handle these kinds of cases to help out the victim and the accused. It is useless to incarcerate a sexual predator with out any medical help and counseling. The victims who have been scare for life will need more then just medical professional counseling. The healing time is a tedious and arduous process for both the victim and the accused. We are only fooling and setting our community and ourselves up for failure if we continue to look the other way by not taken care of these problems head on.

Soifua,

Amerika Samoa ia mataala!

Savaii P. Amitoelau
Olosegia, Manu'a

"AS Stop the Corruptions"

ASG continues to be the laughing stock of our pacific neighbors on how we conduct our political and government internal affairs.  The latest saga of corruption at our AG's office and how the scam unraveled let alone how the AG reacted by firing the guy who seems to be doing his job.  It seems we continue to play hardball politics between the attorney General office and the judicial system. If our judicial system cannot figure out who has the legal jurisdiction to prosecute the case against the accused CI agents than we have a problem.

Firstly, we may not know exactly why the Attorney General fired Mr. Moi Masaniai, the assistance Attorney General, but we can only speculate that Mr. Masaniai's disagreement with his Boss might be either more along the lines of administrative and prosecutorial protocols which relates to internal conflict of interest.  However, it is quite apparent that the AG has exercised  his prerogative to terminate Mr. Moi Masaniai for acting out of authoritative protocols which some of the public may not be aware, that it is a legal action whether or not Masaniai's action warrants such a drastic action from his boss.  We could easily say that the AG was being personal when Mr. Masaniai seemingly acted on his own maverick agenda.  There was a mention in Samoanews article recently of prior "long standing difference" between the AG and Mr. Masaniai and we don’t know the details and substance of such claim.

However, if Mr. Masaniai acted out of frustration for lack of immediate support from his boss in moving forward with what needed to be done to prosecute these kinds of white collar crimes within the AG's department, then there is more to unravel for public scrutiny.  If this is the case, then we just wonder how much of other cases are swept under the rug.  In which case we hope not and some of us can applaud what Masaniai did.

Secondly, the time line and duration of the alleged scam under the AG's watch can say much about the lack of accountability and proactive response in a timely manner on the AG's part.  One thing that is clear, the Treasury Department had initiated inquiries to the matter well beyond 6 months prior and why did it take long for AG to take action?  The lack of timely response on AG's part implicates his ignorance of the alleged serious crimes in the making or  lack of insight as to what he needed to do to appropriately prosecute the alleged perpetrators of crimes in his office.   In my humble opinion Mr. Masaniai was only doing what the AG should have done in the first place.  Another thing that does not sit well with the people is, when these  crimes are being committed,  what happened to internal control measures  that should have been implemented as normal office procedures to endure accountability and transparency? Something just does not seem right about the AG office from the top to bottom officials.  All these irregularities amount to poor management and administrative abilities and skills that are paramount of those we select to run our government. 

Let this be another insight our people should ponder on when we vote for our leaders in November this year.

As much as most of our people scoff against setting up a federal court in our territory, it is the prospect of ongoing corruption in government and lackluster in prosecution record that would make a compelling argument that we need the federal court in AS. Keep in mind that having the federal court in AS will not stop the corruption in our territories because people will continue to test the system. Having the federal court in our territory will be more convenient for the judicial system and families of the prosecuted as they are not to be dragged off island.  We will still be in compliance with the federal judicial system having a speedy trial and tried by their peers. If we continue to send our people off island to be incarcerated and prosecuted by the federal court, this will put a lot of financial strain upon the families and long distance traveling between AS, Hawaii and Washington DC.

Having the federal court system with limited jurisdictions will be the right and smart choice for the people of AS. If we do not do something to deter corruption in ASG than the people of AS will continue to suffer and pay for other people's stupid and inexcusable mistakes. A wise man once said; "The left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing," and that is why internal control measures should be standard procedures in ASG from the top to bottom in all departments. Something just does not seem right about this whole investigations and prosecution.

Soifua;

Amerika Samoa ia mataala!

Savaii P. Amitoelau
Olosega, Manu'a

Senate Bill to Mandate the Using of the Samoan Language as a Medium of Instruction in the Public School

It's such a positive feeling reading Senator Pulefaasisina P. Tuiasosopo's Senate bill and the deliberation by the committee to mandate the using of the Samoan language as a medium of instruction within the public school system.

It's only appropriate that our Fono Leaders in order to legislate and address the preservation of our Samoan language from further erosion as we witness today identify such a need.

The soliciting of input from the general public will be invaluable in strengthening this bill and laying the framework on how DOE, ASG and Non-Governmental Organizations will work cooperatively in preserving our Samoan language.

Our Leaders must be commended for the foresight to address concerns facing our language and making the preservation of our Samoan language a priority. Perhaps this might be an opportunity to make this a mandate.

Concerns will be raised regarding this bill but hopefully it will be deliberated in favor of using the Samoan language as a medium of instruction for public schools and allocating appropriate resources for this effort.

This bill will help set standards to assist in the preservation and perpetuation of our Samoan language.

Respectfully,

Tauapai Laupola

"Manu'a Flag Day 2008"

I would like to express my appreciation to the ASG and the people of Manu'a and Tututila for the yearly Flag Day of recognizing the signing of the treaty of cession between Manu'a and United States of America. It is too bad not everyone could make it from Tutuila, even the group from Ofuega and Olosegia because of bad weather. Sometimes people are not realistic or optimistic about rendering the protocol of due respect to TuiManu'a and the Manu’a ancestors. Then we wonder why it rained with the bad weather at the time of the Manu'a Flag Day celebration 2008. Most of the focuses were on the preparation for the Art Festival 2008 on Tututila.

Many have raised concerns regarding the disputed issues about honoring Manu'atele treaty of cession. We still do not have a treaty sign between Tutuila and Manu'a. By virtue of Manu'a's treaty with the U.S., she is entitled to have its own separate government because Manu'a was a kingdom ruled by TuiManu’a. In the early 1900s Manu'a islands maintained a sizable level of economic activity at about half of Tutuila's exports in cobra (dried coconut) and crafts to California, Australia, Fiji etc.

However, since the shift of governance from the naval administration to the Department of Interior, political attention was focused to Tutuila under the banner of "Amerika Samoa" which assumed a combined entity between the two island groups and at the same time down played the significance of the two separate treaties with the U.S. Rightfully, Manu'a islands and its government was entitled to special conditions and terms of economic prosperity the US had promised Manu'a in the said treaty. Furthermore, the people of Manu'a had become complacent with the turn of events that followed. The sad truth is that even when the leaders of our American Samoa government hailed from Manu'a over many decades, very little attention had been given to the people of Manu'a. To date, there have been many people who migrated to Tutuila and the US mainland in pursuit of economic opportunities and a better quality of life.

Today in Manu'a many homes have been abandoned dried up and over come by weeds with the surrounding green vegetation. Recently food and fuel have become limited in supply because the MV Sili has been on dry dock for maintenance and repair and returned to Hawaii for certification. In the mean time the governor has dispatched another boat and where is the MV Manu'atele?

Congratulations of the opening of the new medical hospital on the island of Ta'u. Now we cannot wait for another medical building with staff for Ofuega and Olesegia and it is long overdue. Manu'a airfields do not have any lights for Ofuega and Ta'u it has been over 104 years since the signing of the said treaty and we still do not have any lights for our airfields. We understand funds were allocated for this project but were taken elsewhere. We also wonder where is the priority on the condition of the health and welfare for the people of Manu'atele?

Water condition for Manu'a is not good either. These underground water well have been contaminated by animal and human waist. Yes, we have a government operated water pump system in place that filters out the particles. Remember we did have an outbreak in Olosegia and Ofuega of the water contamination a few years back and over 20 people were infected. We propose to have a high tech generator system in place that pumps sea water into drinking portable water. This will be very inexpensive and safe to operate and general electric system in the USA has been during this for many years.

Election year is near and I would like to call upon our future political leaders in our territory to make Manu'a their first priority. Manu'a treaty of cession needs to be recognized and honored by giving Manu'a our own separate federal budget. If the governor plans to station the MV Manu'atele between Ofuega and Ta'u this will cost a lot of funds to maintain, maintenances and supply between islands. Manu'a people are getting tired of been treated as second class citizens and receiving bread crumbs after the federal funds is distribute throughout Tutuila. We have no economical growth in Manu'a and the MV Sili and MV Manuatele is our only lively hood for our people now.

Soifua;

Amerika Samoa ia mataala!

Savaii P. Amitoelau
Olosega, Manu'a