Parliament appoints Tuimaleali’ifano Va’aletoa Sualauvi as new Head of State

APIA, SAMOA – WEDNESDAY 05 JULY 2017: The Samoan parliament has just appointed a new Head of State.

Lawyer and long-time member of the Council of Deputies, Tuimaleali’ifano Va’aletoa Sualauvi 11 was unanimously elected in 20 minute session of parliament this morning after the ruling party caucus meeting last night.

The parliamentary session was only to formalize the selection when the Speaker made the written announcement from the Human Rights Protection Party and put the nomination to the vote.

The appointment is made by parliament under Section 18 (5) (a) of the Constitution on the advice of the ruling political party.

Tuimaleali’ifano, a holder of one of the paramount chiefly titles, Tama Aiga, replaces Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi who had served as Head of State for ten years and whose term ends 25 July 2017.

The Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi congratulated the new appointee who he said was eligible for selection in 2007 after the passing of Malietoa Tanumafili 11 and again in 2012.

Tuilaepa also acknowledged incumbent Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi and service as a Member of Parliament, Prime Minister, a Member of the Council of Deputies and Head of State.

Tuilaepa said Tui Atua has served with esteem and at the highest level for Samoa.

He said the selection of the Head of State was in accordance with the democratic process.

“But it was not easy as we are a very small country and we are interconnected as families that gave rise to the saying that Samoa is but one family,” said Tuilaepa.

It was brief and smooth and was over in 20 minutes and parliament was adjourned to 27 October 2017.

The swearing in of Tuimalealiifano as Head of State will be announced in due course. </s> Samoa has a new Head of State.

This morning the 50-member Parliament voted unanimously for a of the Council of Deputies or Council of Deputy Heads of State, Tuimalealiifano Va’aletoa Sualauvi II, to become Samoa’s Head of State for the next five years.

This follows a caucus vote by the ruling Human rights Protection Party last night for Tuimalealiifano to replace Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi in the position.

The Speaker of Parliament introduced the motion by HRPP for Tuimaleaaliifano to serve as the new Head of State and the motion was passed unanimously by voice vote.

The election of Tuimaleaaliifano ends the service of the current Head of State Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi who has held the position since 2008.

Tuiatua’s second term as Head of State ends July 25.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said in parliament following the vote that the election of Tuimalealiifano was a historical milestone for Samoa.

He said the election was conducted democratically and noted that it was the will of God that Tuimalealiifano, who was in the running for head of state in the last two elections wait his turn to take up the seat.

The Prime Minister thanked Tuiatua for his selfless service for Samoa and wished the new Head of State well in his new position as the father of the nation.

Tuimalealiifano is a lawyer, and has been a senior police inspector, deputy commissioner of police and worked in the Attorney General’s Office before setting up private practice.

A swearing in ceremony is to be scheduled in the coming days.

Click here for motion and vote </s> Head of States future rests on parliament this morning

APIA, SAMOA – WEDNESDAY 05 JULY 2017: Whether the Head of State Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi continues in the role for the next five years depends on Parliament this morning.

Reports after a ruling party caucus last night tend to favour a new candidate.

The Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi downplayed the reports and told reporters last night to await an announcement in parliament at 0930 this morning as there is a legal process to be followed.

“If it is Tupua, then he will be in the role 15 years,” said Tuilaepa.

If it’s a new appointment, then a swearing in ceremony will be held tomorrow, according to the Prime Minister.

Given the governments dominance in parliament, the selection will be academic for whoever caucus supports.

Tuilaepa also told reporters that all members of the Council of Deputies are eligible as candidates.

Most senior of the Council members is paramount chief Tuimaleali’ifano Va’aletoa Suālauvī. Former Cabinet Ministers Le Mamea Ropati Mualia and Tuiloma Pule Lameko are in their first terms in office.

The ruling Human Rights Protection Party has been consolidating the role of Head of State to be open to a candidate the party with the majority in parliament nominates. In the spirit of the Constitution as well, future holders of the office do not have to be holders of the paramount chiefly titles – Tama Aiga.

When Samoa became independent in 1962, the role was held jointly by the Heads of State and paramount chiefs Malietoa Tanumafili 11 and Tupua Tamasese Meaole.

In 1963, Tupua Tamasese Meaole passed away and Malietoa was Head of State for 45 years until his passing in May 2007.

Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi was appointed as Head of State in 2008 despite being a harsh critic of the Human Rights Protection Party and its successive governments. </s> Taxing Head of State is disrespectful says Church Council Secretary

APIA, SAMOA –TUESDAY 04 JULY 2017: The Secretary of the National Council of Churches Reverend Ma’auga Motu says taxing the Head of State is very disrespectful.

He said he was surprised when he heard that the Head of State was included in the tax Bill passed by parliament last week.

“I understand that we need money for economic development, but Samoa is known worldwide for her identity of respect,” said Reverend Motu.

He said the past governments recognized the respect rendered the Head of State and never included the Head of State or church ministers as tax payers.

Reverend Motu also raised the immunity status of the Head of State and if he was taxed.

During a consultation last week, Reverend Motu asked the Ministry of Inland Revenue’s Chief Executive Officer, Avalisa Viali – Fautuaali’i to calculate the tax cut from $175,000 which he said was the annual earnings of a pastor in the Vaimauga district.

“She said $41,000, and that is a very big cut,” said Reverend Motu.

He also pointed to the need to go back to claiming annual tax refunds as done in previous years to help the taxpayers.

Reverend Motu said both he and the Chairman of the National Council agree that the tax bill was introduced and discussed in such a short time, and what Government should have done was to write to all church ministers and churches in Samoa for their personal views.

“Most of the church ministers did not attend the public consultation on the issue,” said Reverend Motu.

In the lead up to the debate in parliament of the tax bill last week, the Minister of Revenue Tialavea Tinoisio Hunt said 19 church denominations were consulted and the objection by the Congregationalist and Methodists against the law have been duly recorded. </s> Photo: AFP

Edouard Fritch has been re-elected as French Polynesia's president for a five-year term.

In the territorial assembly, Mr Fritch of the Tapura Huiraatira received the backing of 39 of the 57 members.

He defeated the challenges of Geffry Salmon of the Tahoeraa Huiraatira Party and of the five-time president Oscar Temaru of the pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira Party.

In a surprise development, an as yet unidentified Tahoeraa member also voted for Mr Fritch.

Mr Salmon received ten votes although his party has 11 members while Mr Temaru got eight votes.

In the policy speeches preceding the assembly vote, Mr Temaru sharply attacked Mr Fritch and outlined his campaign for sovereignty.

Marking five years since the UN reinscribed French Polynesia on its decolonisation list, Mr Temaru placed a UN flag on the podium.

In his speech, Mr Fritch denounced the UN for failing to send aid after last year's floods in Tahiti.

Mr Fritch first became president in 2014 when the Tahoeraa leader Gaston Flosse was forced to resign because of a corruption conviction which carried with it ineligibility to hold office.

In the past term, Mr Fritch was convicted for corruption twice and ordered to repay more than $US80,000 but has been allowed to stay in office.

Both he and Gaston Flosse are still due to stand trial for alleged abuse of public funds over making a local council provide water to Flosse's residence for free.

Yesterday, the assembly elected Gaston Tong Sang as assembly president for five years, just two months after he was given a one-year suspended jail sentence and a fine of $US20,000 for abusing public funds. </s> Photo: AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura

Vanuatu was in a state of mourning on Saturday after its revered president, Baldwin Lonsdale, died unexpectedly. He was 67.

He was rushed to Vila Central Hospital late on Friday night after a suspected heart attack, but died just after midnight.

"Vanuatu has lost one of its greatest leaders," said Sela Molisa, a former long-time parliamentarian who described the late president as a humble, gentle man. "Vanuatu was lucky to have had him."

Flags around the country were lowered to half mast, and hundreds of family, friends and members of the public gathered outside the hospital to stand vigil on Saturday.

The Council of Ministers met to discuss mourning plans, which are likely to include a state funeral, and the late president's body was taken to lie at State House on Saturday night.

Baldwin Jacobson Lonsdale was born on Mota Lava, in the northern Banks islands, in 1950. He grew up to become a senior civil servant and the secretary general of the Torba provincial government before becoming an Anglican priest.

In September 2014, Father Lonsdale was elected to the presidency by an electoral college in the eighth round of voting, when he finally achieved a two thirds majority of MPs and provincial chairs.

Father Lonsdale promised to uphold the constitution and asked the people of Vanuatu to stand united: "I know that there is a big responsibility in the office of the head of state," he said on his appointment.

"But my first and foremost priority is to make sure that the constitution of the nation is upheld at all times and that peace, unity, justice and harmony prevail at all times," he said.

That commitment would come to be tested in a turbulent year in 2015, when the largely ceremonial role would become a pillar of stability through a destructive cyclone and a political crisis.

In March 2015, the country was devastated by Cyclone Pam, a category five storm that swept its way down the archipelago, leaving thousands homeless and much of the country's crops and infrastructure destroyed.

At the time, Father Lonsdale was in Japan at a conference on disaster risk reduction, where he made a tearful appeal for international assistance. "As a nation, as the head of my nation, my heart is for the people," he said in an address that was beamed around the world. "Everyone has that same feeling, because we don't know what happened to our family.

"There's a breakdown of communications that we cannot reach our families and we do not know whether our families are safe or not," he said.

Father Lonsdale described the cyclone as a monster that had wiped out the country's developments, and blamed climate change for contributing to the disaster.

Then, six months later, with the country still rebuilding from the cyclone, another crisis descended upon Port Vila.

In October 2015, 15 MPs -- half the government of Prime Minster Sato Kilman -- was convicted of corruption, making them ineligible for office.

But while Father Lonsdale was overseas, one of the convicted MPs, then-speaker of parliament Marcellino Pipite, pardoned himself and 13 of this colleagues in his capacity as acting president.

A furious Father Lonsdale returned to Vanuatu and rescinded the pardons, before addressing the nation to express his "shame and sorrow" at Pipite's actions.

"I will clean this dirt from my backyard," a visibly shaken president swore in his televised address. "We as a nation have to stop these crooked ways."

Following a failed appeal against the pardons, Father Lonsdale moved to dissolve parliament and called snap elections for January 2016, which saw Mr Kilman's government ousted and a new government formed that promised widespread reforms.

At the opening of the new parliament, Father Lonsdale said "the corruption we have seen is an abuse of public trust for private gain," describing the new legislature as a "new chart for Vanuatu's destiny."

"He was firm and wouldn't be swayed," said Mr Molisa, who said Father Lonsdale's unwavering commitment to the rule of law enshrined him as one of the country's greatest leaders. "History will remember him for this."

"I'm sure the government and every other - especially at the political level - people would recognise that Vanuatu has lost a very outstanding leader," he said.

That was a sentiment shared across Vanuatu. As the news director of the Vanuatu Daily Post, Dan McGarry, said in a post on Facebook: "By shouldering the burden of office, even when others had abused it so, he reasserted the integrity of an office that the Constitutions says embodies 'the unity of the nation'."

"And now, we're all united in mourning. His gift to the nation was immense, and will not be forgotten."

The Prime Minister, Charlot Salwai, was due to address the nation on Saturday evening to announce the nation's plans for a period of mourning. However, government officials said these would likely include a state funeral before the burial of the president's body on Mota Lava.

Under the constitution, the speaker of parliament, Esmon Saimon, is currently the acting president, and a new head of state will need to be elected by another electoral college within three weeks. </s> Nauru MP Lionel Aingimea has been sworn in as the country's new president, replacing Baron Waqa, who lost his seat in Saturday's general election.

Mr Aingimea, a second term MP, defeated David Adeang by 12 to 6 in the parliamentary vote.

The speaker is former president Marcus Stephen, who won by 12 votes to 7 over Shadlog Bernicke.

Mr Aingimea is a former secretary of justice and served as an assistant minister in various portfolios in the previous government.

Photo: Facebook/ Parliament of the Republic of Fiji

In his first statements as president, Mr Aingimea said he was humbled to be elected to the position, but acknowledged the tough work ahead of him.

Describing himself as the "father of the nation", he likened the 12,000 population of Nauru as being children who need protection and guidance.

Collaborative approach

The President said his first duty in office was to address administrative areas such as the appointment of ministers and assistant ministers.

According to him there would be a new way in how government deals with assistant ministers.

He said every minister and assistant minister would start meeting with their heads of department on a regular basis.

"They need to be briefed by their HODs, they need to come up with a plan, and what's happening," he said.

"And after discussion, they come back to cabinet and they give their vision to cabinet of where they want to go," President Aingimea said.

He said his vision for Nauru was for everyone to work together.

"Everyone has ideas, everyone needs those ideas to be voiced and when they need to be tempered, to be tempered.

"That's my vision that we work together as a unit, for the prosperity and the betterment of Nauru," he said.

President Aingimea is expected to announce his cabinet at the oath ceremony in front of the government office tomorrow (Wednesday 28 August). </s> NZ donates additional $3m for cyclone recovery and $6.5 m to the private sector

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden and Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi talk to the media following the bilateral talks in Apia today.

APIA, SAMOA – MONDAY 05 MARCH 2018: New Zealand is making an additional contribution of $3m dollars as upfront funding to the Samoan government for identified cyclone recovery needs.

This was announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Arden in Apia today following formal bilateral talks with Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

Arden referred to what she has been told of the devastation by Cyclone Gita last month that included unprecedented land slips in a scale not seen before, and the funds are to help Samoa’s recovery and building resilience as well.

The Prime Minister also discussed funding for the Private Sector development of $6.5 million dollars saying the investment has been hugely successful and really making a contribution to increasing Samoa’s GDP. The funds target funding support for women and young people small business projects through the Ministry of Commerce and the Development Bank.

She noted the success of some of the private sector’s investments hence the additional support set aside for small business development.

She said both New Zealand and Samoa can help develop opportunities and support business projects for young people domestically, given that half of the population in Samoa are defined as young.

As part of her one day program in Samoa, she inspected some of the Small Business Enterprise (SBEC) events at the Taumeasina Hideaway where small business were showcased.

“We are working closely with your Ministry of Commerce and Development Bank to try and enhance this existing co-operation,” said Prime Minister Adern.

She is starting her annual Pacific tour in Samoa in what has been promoted as “Pacific Reset” setting out a new strategy that flags a stronger New Zealand Pacific aid policy as “it’s the Pacific where New Zealand mattered and could do the most,” according to Foreign Affairs Minister, Winston Peters.

After Samoa, Ardens delegation will visit Tonga, Niue and the Cook Islands. </s> There will be a French influence at the Pacific Islands’ Forum in Samoa next year after leaders voted to give New Caledonia and French Polynesia full membership.

At the leader’s retreat in Pohnpei on Saturday Prime Minister John Key and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pushed the case for the two French territories to be let in, after years of knocking on the door.

“The thing I like about it is these are two countries that have quite developed economies. They’re quite active in the issues that matter - tourism, renewable energy and fisheries for instance,’’ Key said.

Fundamentally it gives the forum “more weight,’’ he said.

New Zealand changed its tune after previously agreeing with other Pacific nations that the two French territories not having control over their foreign policy and defence meant they shouldn’t be allowed full membership.

“We’ve changed our position over time,’’ Key said.

Ahead of the retreat Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully had warned that the motion probably wouldn’t pass because of opposition from members.

On Sunday McCully said he was “pleasantly surprised” leaders had worked through their differences and got it over the line so quickly.

Bubbling away behind the scenes of the forum was the chaos breaking out in Fiji where Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has had a Cabinet reshuffle and ordered for some Opposition MPs, including the leader, to be arrested.

Bainimarama isn’t at the forum in the Federated States of Micronesia after refusing to attend since he was banned in 2009 - instead he sent his foreign minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, who he's since strippped of the role while he’s in Pohnpei.

McCully met with Kubuabola on Sunday where he told him New Zealand was “very closely interested in developments in Fiji’’.

The arrests are understood to relate to “a question of whether there were permits given for a gathering at which some of these individuals were panelists,’’ he said.

“Anything restraining free speech would be a concern to the New Zealand government.’’

McCully said a lot of good things have happened since the disarray in Fiji after Bainimarama led a military coup in 2006 and “we want to keep encouraging those who move things in a good direction’’.

Key said New Zealand is closely observing what is going on and hoping it will remain calm.

“The Government won an election reasonably recently. We thought they’d just get on and run the country, they’ve got the support of the people so they don’t need to do anything particularly silly,’’ he said.

Before the forum wrapped up on Sunday Key announced a $10 million Pacific Sporting Partnerships programme aimed at getting more children in Pacific countries playing sports and being healthy.

“The long term benefits might also be that we’ll continue to have a great crop of Samoan players that can add to the mighty All Blacks from time to time,’’ Key joked to Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi.

The programme will initially focus on netball and rugby in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands.

Malielegaoi said all four nations were grateful for the support and hoped it would extend to include cricket in the future.

“Over 50 per cent of our population comprises of young people. Many are not employed but have talents in playing sport.

“Sport is no longer looked at as a leisure activity, it’s employment for our youths,’’ he said.
Samoa's Legislative Assembly appoints Tuimalealiifano Va'aletoa Sualauvi II as O le Ao o le Malo, or Head of State. He will succeed Tufuga Efi, the country's head of state since 2007, on July 25.