Interview with opposition leader Tupua Tamasese Efi

'Revive the agricultural base'

Tupua Tamasese Efi a former Prime Minister of Western Samoa, is leader of the opposition Samoa National Development Party which won 11 of the 49 seats in the parliamentary elections held in April 1996. In this interview, he outlines his own and his party's views on some of the key political and economic issues in his country.

· In what ways does your party offer a different agenda from that of the governing HRPP ?

-I think the differences are mainly of emphasis. The present government tends to focus on law-making and exploiting the country's least developed status. Our focus would be more on developing our indigenous agricultural industries. If you scrutinise the economic picture in Samoa, you will find that there has been a very substantial decline in agricultural exports in the last fifteen years. Our economy, if you can call it that, is increasingly sustained by largesse-the donations that we get from overseas. This has complicated our situation. Our relative economic independence has been sabotaged to a point where, suddenly, we are getting a proletariat. That might be unavoidable in a lot of places, but it doesn't have to happen in a small country like ours which has self-sustaining village units, and a potentially secure agricultural base supported by products like cocoa, copra and bananas. If you look at what is happening today, you see that, all of a sudden, we have a new class of under-privileged people with absolutely no income at all. And the tragedy is that it has happened without anyone really noticing.

So our emphasis is to try and revive our agricultural base, and to seek out exports. In the past, our economy was sustained by cocoa and copra exports, and a lot of our food was sold to New Zealand. Now, you find that there are hardly any exports.

· So your focus would be more on boosting the traditional aspects of the Samoan economy.

-Not necessarily traditional. Our party is not bound to cocoa, or copra or whatever. But we are committed to improving our agriculture. It matters little whether it is traditional or other crops. But we need to break back into the New Zealand market. This is the best place to aim for. Australia has its own tropical sector and nothing that we can produce is needed by them. New Zealand is different. One of the biggest challenges we have to overcome in getting back into that market is our fruit fly problem. It would seem sensible for us to channel substantial resources into overcoming this hurdle so that we can sell to New Zealand again. There is a tremendous potential market-and not just for copra. There are also products such as flowers, and a whole number of other possibilities.

· Given what you have just said,what emphasis would you place on sectors like manufacturing and tourism ?

-I think that tourism is an obvious way to go and this is where we are in agreement with the government. Of course, you will have heard of the debacle of the Air Polynesia finances. When you compare the losses that were run up with our foreign exchange reserves you get some idea of how enormous the problem was. It was a situation that went badly awry.

This issue aside, we agree that we need to get into tourism-but it must be within reason. Part of the explanation for people gravitating towards tourism is that they see it as the only available avenue-or at least the most visible way of making money.

Another economic point I want to raise concerns debt. Loans can be a quick fix, but when your whole economy is tied to indebtedness, you are creating something that is built on sand. You end 'A potentially secure agricultural base' up acquiring more and more capital items that are totally unrelated to your present or likely future resources. This is one of the most destructive things that can happen to a society, and it is very clearly happening here.

· You have a rich and vibrant living culture here in Western Samoa. Are you concerned that globalisation could ultimately pose a threat to this ?

-No, I am not worried. You have to accept it as a natural development. The things that are distinctive in our culture have to find their place in adapting to the new realities. There is no point putting your head in the sand.

· Turning to political aspects, you now have universal franchise, but you still have to be a matai to be eligible to stand for Parliament Does your party have any plans to change this ?

-Some years ago, we had a constitutional convention which led to changes in the system. Attached to that was a provision requiring a further constitutional convention to be convened in 20 or 25 years (I can't remember the exact period). So we are committed to that. We have to sit down and look at the overall picture. We have gone a long way in terms of universal franchise and it is possible that we need to go even further.

But if one takes the United Kingdom as a model, I think the important lesson is that you should 'make haste slowly'. The genius of the Westminster model is that it involves careful evolution. I hope that this tradition will be followed by our country. The constitution, as it was put together some 30 or 40 years ago, has served its purpose very well but there are quite a few anomalies appearing now.

· What is your view about regional cooperation in the South Pacific What future do you see in working together with the other countries of the region- perhaps presenting a more united front to the outside world ?

-There is a lot of sense in the SAS approach-I am referring here to the Scandinavian countries getting together to form an airline. It is sensible to take a common stand where we have a common interest. But there are obviously intricacies resulting from historical, economic and social factors. At the moment I am reading a book on lain Macleod, the British Conservative statesman. His experience in the failed attempt to form a federation in the Caribbean is very revealing.

When you enter a common endeavour, there is always the pull of your own particular interests. And there can be a suspicion that the 'bigger boys' will use the others to promote their own interests. A lot of this may be perception rather than reality. Also, traditional rivalries can intrude. Sometimes you need to fall flat on your face before you Let me give you an example from the world of rugby. It took Rupert Murdoch to get Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa to realise that our fates are intertwined. He has come in with a commercial package that has taken over the entire rugby scene in the region- with a heavy emphasis on Australia and New Zealand-and this has hit us in a big way. For example, we find ourselves being cut out of traditional rugby tours. There is no point in us trying to claim that we are self-sufficient in this area. The big lesson is that we need to cooperate a lot more with the Tongans and Fijians in order to make an impact on the wider rugby scene._