More than three months after winning an election that sparked a constitutional crisis, Samoa’s first female prime minister was yesterday eventually able to take office.
A smiling Fiame Naomi Mata’afa sat in the chair her predecessor had been reluctant to relinquish after 22 years in power. She held her first Cabinet meeting, with members of her Faith in the One God of Samoa (FAST) party dressed in the distinctive red clothes that party members and supporters often wear.
Mata’afa, 64, said they were ready to begin their work.
Photo: AFP / The FAST Party Samoa
That could include a reset of the nation’s relationship with China. On the campaign trail, Mata’afa had pledged to stop a US$100 million port development backed by Beijing, calling the project excessive for a nation that is already heavily in debt to China.
After a knife-edge election result in April, Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi refused to concede defeat, despite several court rulings that went against him.
He had two powerful allies in the nation’s head of state and the speaker, who were able to stall the transfer of power.
A bizarre scene played out in May when Mata’afa and her FAST party were locked out of the Samoan Legislative Assembly, with Malielegaoi saying he was still in charge. Mata’afa and her party members took oaths and appointed ministers in a ceremony held under a tent in front of the locked Legislative Assembly.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Mata’afa said that day was charged with emotion.
“It could have gone pear-shaped, but we were able to keep calm,” she said. “We could have stormed the building and knocked down the doors, like in Washington DC, but we just sat and sang a few hymns, sang a prayer.”
Last week, the nation’s top court ruled the unusual swearing-in ceremony that day had been constitutional, and Malielegaoi finally conceded. Mata’afa had previously served as his deputy.
She said in the interview that she resigned after becoming concerned that Malielegaoi and fellow lawmakers had gone “off the rails” by trying to politically intervene in the nation’s court system and judiciary.
“It was a classic case of power and corruption,” Mata’afa said. “We were slipping away from the rule of law, and I didn’t like that, but most of party were happy to go along with it.”
Mata’afa’s election win is seen as a milestone not only for Samoa, which is conservative and Christian, but also for the South Pacific, which has had few female leaders.
Mata’afa said she did not think her gender was a big issue in the election, and that her role in the traditional chiefly system was perhaps more important to voters, but she hoped that she might be a positive role model for Pacific women in other fields, showing what they could achieve.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
TICKING CLOCK: A path to a budget agreement was still possible, the president’s office said, as a debate on reversing an increase of the pension age carries on French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday was racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis. The presidency late on Wednesday said that Macron would name a new prime minister within 48 hours, indicating that the appointment would come by this evening at the latest. Lecornu told French television in an interview that he expected a new prime minister to be named — rather than early legislative elections or Macron’s resignation — to resolve the crisis. The developments were the latest twists in three tumultuous
RSS