Samoan PM remembers Otago
THE Prime Minister of Samoa braved a brisk Dunedin evening for the Southern launch of his 2017 memoir at the University of Otago yesterday.
Dignitaries packed Marama Hall to hear Samoan Prime Minister Susuga Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi speak about his memoir Palemia— which translates from Samoan as ‘‘prime minister’’ — written with Victoria University of Wellington academic Dr Peter Swain.
In office since 1998, Mr Malielegaoi (73) is Samoa’s longestserving prime minister.
He earned a master’s degree in commerce from the
University of Auckland and worked for the European Economic Community before being elected to the Samoan parliament in 1980.
He shepherded the Pacific nation through turbulent times, but despite a series of natural disasters and simmering regional tensions, supporters say his premiership has resulted in unprecedented political stability and economic development.
He said he was heartened to see large numbers of Samoans studying at Otago University, along with Samoan faculty members.
Discussing his memoir, he spoke highly of coauthor Dr Swain, who had spent decades managing development programmes in the Pacific.
‘‘I would talk to him, giving interviews and then he recorded it and came back to Wellington and tried to decipher what I was talking about.
‘‘In that way it was so, so easy to write . . . it all depended on memory.’’
The memoir covers Mr Malielegaoi’s childhood in the small village of Lepa on Upolu Island before traversing his journey to Apia for education, then to New Zealand for university and around the world as an economist, but always returning to Fa’asamoa — a concept meaning the language and customs of Samoa.
He leaves the door open to running for a fifth election campaign in 2021, but says the decision to stand again ‘‘depends on what my party wants.’’
Mr Malielegaoi will speak at Otago Polytechnic this afternoon.