RESPONDING IN SAMOAN LANGUAGE CONSISTENT WITH GOVERNMENT POLICY
By: Joshua Lafoa’i
As part of Government’s efforts to augment the use of the Samoan language nationally, Government leaders and senior officials are required to deliver all their official public briefings and addresses in Samoan.
“This was reinforced by a Cabinet Directive, (Faaiuga ale Kapeneta (FK) approved on 24th December 2019 to reinforce a long standing Government policy instigated by the late Honourable Prime Minister, Tofilau Eti Alesana’s during his tenure in Office. The policy requires all Cabinet submissions and Cabinet directives to be written and communicated in Samoan. Prior to this, Cabinet submissions were written and directives were communicated in English”, explained the Secretary to Cabinet who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and interim Chairman of the NEOC, Agafili Tomaimano Shem Leo.
In implementing this Directive, Cabinet took the lead in setting examples for senior government officials by insisting on addressing local public gatherings in Samoan. Senior officials were directed in the same Cabinet directive, that in the event of government hosted gatherings that include the presence of non-Samoan speaking invited guests, a translated English copy of the public address must be made available to them during the event, and both the Samoan and English versions are subsequently released publicly”. “In so doing, the speakers have been spared of a huge task of delivering one official address in two languages which has in many occasions become tedious and time consuming”. Agafili explained.
The Cabinet Secretary’s response is to clarify implications of a story published by the Samoa Observer that Director General of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri had dodged questions regarding an update on Samoa’s State of Emergency response to COVID19 during a Press Conference he co-hosted Monday with Leausa.
The article headlined “Health Chief refuses to answer questions in English” is based on responses in Samoan by Leausa to Samoa Observer’s reporter Sapper Mayron’s questions in English.
“I have decided that it is best to communicate my answers in Samoan because it is my mother tongue, and the official language used by Government,” said Leausa.
“Speaking to you in Samoan makes it easier and clearer for me to communicate my point to the people of Samoa who need this information,” he added.
The Samoa Observer reporter asked if the revelations from the Fesco Askold the week prior had led to changes in the systems put in place by the MOH and NEOC for ports security.
The Medical Chief responded in Samoan saying, “No there are no changes, just that we have sent more people there…”
The reporter then repeated her question asking if Leausa could repeat his answer in English, and Leausa repeated his response in Samoan again saying, “Leai, e leai se suiga i le port.”
Leausa advised the junior reporter to have a translator accompany her in future press conferences, or send a Samoan reporter who understands the Samoan language.
(The Government Press Secretariat had distributed the Ministry of Health’s Standard Operating Procedure on Port Security protocols including the Press Statement responding to the incident to all stakeholders including the media less than 24 hours after the initial reports from Talanei News in American Samoa went viral.)
However the Samoa Observer story published went on to accuse the Medical Chief of failing to release information regarding the Fesco Askold, saying the Samoa Observer had to break the story to the public.
The story quoted, “Leausa was informed by American Samoa authorities at about 9.30pm last Monday that three sailors aboard a ship that had been in Samoan waters for nearly a day, the Fesco Askold, had coronavirus.”
It went on to say that he did not disclose this information to the public and claiming the Samoa Observer broke the details 12 hours later, omitting that the information they received were from an online news story published by an American Samoan news outlet.
Interim NEOC Chairman of NEOC Agafili subsequently also dismissed the accusations by confirming that Government withheld no information noting that the NEOC and MOH followed all official protocols required to satisfy SOE requirements apropos information dissemination.
“Once we collected and verified the information, we went back and retraced the sequence of events from the minute the container ship – Fesco Askold was at the quarantine buoy a mile away from the wharf, until it left docks. We found that we did everything by the book and the process was followed,” he said.
“A press release to this effect was distributed on Tuesday to all the government stakeholders including the media, local and abroad less than 24 hours,” added Agafili. “When we had the complete information required, an official press statement from the Government was issued on Tuesday evening. This was followed by an official press conference the following day where the media was openly invited to attend and asked questions. The panel took their time to respond to questions posed,” said Agafili.
(The same press release along with the SOP for Port Security were subsequently posted on the Government’s Social Media Facebook platforms, website and twitter)
As for the Samoan responses by Leausa, the Secretary to Cabinet reiterated that the Director General of Health, followed the policy.
“Using Samoa’s native language in local public addresses re-emphasizes the value and essence of the Samoan language. The same approach has been undertaken in the way Parliament of Samoa conducts all its business and undertakes deliberations in Samoan. A Commission for the Samoan language has been formulated to strengthen the use, understanding and application of Samoan vocabularies.
“Globally, the use of other languages other than English as official languages is common, even in huge conferences and public gatherings”. You go to France, they communicate in French, you go to Germany they communicate in German, you go to Japan, they communicate in Japanese, you come to Samoa, we communicate in Samoan’ Agafili said.
Meanwhile, Leausa had responded to all of the Samoa Observer’s questions and provided the answers they sought. The only difference was that the medical chief responded in Samoan.
