SNDP Manifesto 2001
Published 9 February 2001

It Is Time for a Change! Enough is Enough!

SNDP, the Party that Cares!

KEY POLICY COMMITMENTS

1. We will lighten the burden that families have been forced to carry.

2. We will bring an end to corrupt practices and create open, accountable and participatory approaches to government.

3. We will upgrade roads, safe water and electricity and ensure that it is distributed fairly throughout Samoa.

4. We will take Samoa into the world of the new technologies and the knowledge economy as new foundation for our economic development.

5. We will create a hopeful future of educational development opportunities for our children.

6. We will upgrade the health and cut waiting times for out patient services.

7. We will create effective channels for the people of Samoa to participate in the creation of government policy, including the churches, the elders, the experts, the villages, women’s groups, men’s groups, young people and consumers.

8. We will invest in the young people of Samoa by creating multiple educational opportunities for them to participate in the knowledge economy and gain employment.

MANIFESTO SNDP 2001

1. LESSEN THE BURDEN FOR FAMILIES.

Families urgently need relief from the present tax and levy burden.

SNDP will:

· · Remove VAGST on basic food items and medicines.

· · Set up a Taxation Review Task Force to bring forth proposals for a fairer tax system that require people who currently do not pay tax but ought to, to pay their share and relieve the burden of tax on less well-off families.

2. END CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT … Following revelations of corruption in Government

SNDP will:

· · Establish by law an Anti-Corruption Tribunal to monitor, detect and remedy corruption;

· · Overseas a Code of Ethics for public servants and public officials which include Cabinet and MPs

· · Establish independent Commissions of Inquiry to investigate:

- - Passport Scandal

- - Sale/lease of Government assets

- - Tendering system

- - Sacking of the Auditor General Su’a Rimoni

- - Polynesian Airlines financial status

- - Assassination of the late Minister of Works

3. UPGRADING ROADS, CLEAN WATER AND ELECTRICITY FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY.

SNDP will:

· · Increase and upgrade public and access roads in rural areas.

· · Upgrade roads in metropolitan Apia

· · Ensure clean water is fairly distributed throughout Samoa

· · Increase the electrification of villages and households particularly in rural areas

· · Increase and maintain the reliability of electricity supplies

4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT… Modern, well planned and balanced economic development is essential for creating employment and prosperity in Samoa. In particular, the future of our young people who are increasingly becoming unemployed is at stake. The HRPP government has increasingly provided a false impression of a successful economy under their leadership. In actual fact, the Samoan economy is at a very dangerous stage and has not adapted to the new world of technology and the knowledge economy. The figures that have been used by the government to claim the economy is doing well, rely on remittances from Samoan expatriates for their families and the sale of government assets. We have not developed the economic capacity to balance our own accounts through our own production and trade. In time, the remittances will become less and less. There will soon few assets left to sell. In the meantime, families are carrying an increasing burden, and more and more of our young people are growing up without skills and employment.

SNDP will:

Take Samoa into the new world of technology and the knowledge economy by

· · Setting up a Technology and Knowledge Economy Planning Task Force which will involve local and international experts to prepare a practical plan for Samoa’s fast track development in this area,

· · Creating educational courses and institutions for teaching the new technology and the knowledge economy,

· · Providing opportunities for young people to become skilled, and the adult workers to up skill in these areas

· · Recognizing the vulnerability of primary agricultural products on the world market, develop a focus on adding value to those products through technology and processing,

· · Encouraging a creative environment of innovation and flair for Samoan products, business opportunities and marketing,

· · Ensuring balanced economic development in this area which encourages ‘job rich’ initiatives that will increase the numbers of real jobs in Samoa.

5. EDUCATION … The HRPP rhetoric about priority is contradicted by the recent UNESCO Report which says that the literacy rate has declined.

SNDP will:

· · Ensure that the secondary school curriculum will focus on technology and knowledge economy, vocational training and training related to potential employment;

· · Guarantee all young people who leave school the second chance opportunity for 2 years employment, training or education. This would eliminate unemployment for this age group;

· · Introduce measures to enforce compulsory education with particular emphasis on the first 6 years of schooling;

· · Review the viability of establishing a primary and secondary Education Board;

· · Devise an incentive scheme that will attract and retain teachers;

6. EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS… Under the HRPP government, the wages gap in the Public Service has grown out of control. People at the top level have become very rich while most workers have not had a general pay increase for some years. This is very unfair on ordinary Samoan workers and their families. Furthermore, many workers report that they live in fear of losing their jobs if they resist some of the questionable practices of the HRPP government.

SNDP will:

· · Set up a Public Service Employment Relations Taskforce consisting of a balance of public service union and government representation alongside employment relations and legal experts to draft a new, fair and balanced Employment Relations Bill that will reflect modern industrial relations practices;

· · Pass a new Employment Relations Act along the lines agreed to;

· · Resource the implementation of the new Act and monitor its progress

7. HEALTH … SNDP believes that a healthy people is a healthy nation.

SNDP will:

· · Focus on patients through cutting waiting times at outpatient services;

· · Establish an independent Health Board to administer all health services in the country; like the EPC and the Water Authority Board

· · Increase support for the upgrading District Hospitals

· · Provide assistance to District Health Centres and Komiti Tumama;

· · Provide incentives to doctors to work in district hospitals.

8. OLD AGE PENSION SCHEME… SNDP values and appreciates the contributions by our senior citizens in the development of our country.

SNDP will:

· · Render absolute commitment to the Old Age Pension Scheme;

· · Continue the Old Age Pension Scheme

· · Review the Scheme with the view of securing and improving the Old Age Pension

9. SMALL MICRO BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT should be encourage and supported.

SNDP will:

Establish a Small Business Development Board to administer the development of small micro-business schemes for new and viable business.
Provide financial schemes/incentives such as easy access to funding income tax relief for small and viable business.

10.AGRICULTURE, FOREST & FISHERIES… is the core of a viable village unit and its survival rests on the development of Agriculture, Forests & Fisheries.

SNDP will:

Embark on a development plan to revive and restore hope in the Agricultural Sector i.e. in copra, cocoa, other crops and the fishing industry;
Develop technological processes to add value and marketability to our primary products;
Put in place strict quarantine controls to protect our fauna, flora, marine life and environment.
Ensure better security for fishing boats and establish and Incentive Scheme that will guarantee that the owners of fishing vessels will register their vessels in Samoa.

11.LAND ISSUES… There cannot be a lasting solution as long as there is no common and fair standard which applies to applications for land.

SNDP will:

· · Set up an independent commission to investigate the sale, lease and use of government and WSTEC/SLC land and bring forward proposals to address applications on behalf of villages and individuals.

12. REFORM OF ELECTORAL ACT… The current electoral system is unnecessarily complicated and expensive, and is conductive to corrupt practice.

SNDP will:

· · Simply procedures and rectify anomalies as recommended by the Commission of Inquiry

· · Abolish 3 years residential requirement for expatriate Samoans who wish to stand as candidates for Parliament

· · Amend the Electoral Act to enable Samoan citizens residing overseas to vote where they reside.

· · Implement the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendation on the process of registering voters

· · Put the question of a 3 or 5 year Parliamentary term to a national referendum.

13 LEGISLATIVE REFORM…Recent Amendments instigated by the HRPP undermine the principle of checks and balances and transparency and accountability.

SNDP WILL:

· · Restore by amending legislation, the independence and integrity of:

¾ ¾ Controller and Chief Auditor

¾ ¾ Commissioner of Police

¾ ¾ Public Service Commission

¾ ¾ Ombudsman

· · Appoint a full-time President of the Lands and Titles court. To address the issues of delay and backlog

· · Guarantee the independence of media from political control by privatizing TV Samoa and 2AP and Savali to revert to being a Gazette.

· · Repeal legislation instigated by HRPP government restricting the freedom of the Press

· · Remove existing policy where Government pays for the legal services of lawyers acting on behalf of the Prime Minister and/or Cabinet Minister and/or Government officials in the libel action against a newspaper or members of the media

· · Refer to a referendum the increase of the executive from 9 to 26

14 GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS…(National Provident Fund, Central Bank, Development Bank, Public Trust Office, housing Corporation)… A Comprehensive review of these Organisations is essential to ensure more equity, accountability and transparency.

SNDP will:

· · Review current lending policies and procedures

· · Review current interest rates with the view of reducing them

· · Ensure more public accountability and transparency in their operations

· · Review current investment policies

15 IMPORTATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FUEL…

The steep rise in petrol prices has impacted adversely on the cost of living.

SNDP will:

· · Review the current system

· · Review fuel costs and pricing

16 CHILD VENDORS AND POVERTY

SNDP will:

· · Initiate a comprehensive study of child labour, child vendors and the causes of their needs.

· · Create research into poverty, its impacts, its causes, and develop ways of eliminating it.