Weddings we can't afford could be our funeral, Samoan leader warns

Samoan cultural obligations are developing into a financially draining game of one-upmanship, says Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

Tuilaepa, who was in Auckland yesterday to talk at a symposium on future Pacific prosperity and the impact of globalisation, said the cost of events such as weddings and funerals was spiralling out of control.

Samoans were placing a huge financial burden on themselves in the name of family or prestige.

"You can't get by with a simple pig any more," Tuilaepa said.

There was a risk Samoans might start avoiding traditional celebrations because they could not match others who spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on such events.

He said people should provide only what they could comfortably afford.

"We need to take away the stigma of not being able to match the proverbial Joneses," he said.

He also noted that although the traditional system of matai [village chiefs] remained important, "the jury was still out" over where the village council authority stopped and the judicial courts took over.

There have been incidents in Samoa in which MPs had been found guilty of bribing constituents through illegal gift-giving around election time. Former minister Mulitalo Siafausa Vui was recently convicted of bribery and lost his parliamentary seat.

Criticism of the Attorney-General's office over expressing its view that o'o (the giving of food and money) was illegal was followed by the resignation of Attorney-General Brenda Heather Latu and her assistant Vaitimu Daryl Clarke.

Tuilaepa said the preservation of culture depended in part on a sound economic climate. Although the country had recovered from being "virtually bankrupt" 20 to 30 years ago, its economy remained fragile amid concerns about the impact of natural disasters and rising oil prices.

Samoa was trying to make its culture more economically sustainable by increasing the value of its prized fine woven mats and tourism.

Rosalind Ram, an associate professor of Pacific studies at Brigham Young University in Hawaii, said there was a tendency for Pacific Island people to outdo one another. "It is very important to take care of our own family before we extend ourselves to the extent where we are in debt."