Susuga Tuilaʻepa Lupesoliai Neioti Aiono Saʻilele Malielegaoi (born 14 February 1944) is a Samoan politician and economist who is the current Leader of the Opposition of Samoa. A leader of the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), he served as the sixth prime minister of Samoa from 1998 to 2021.

Tuilaʻepa first entered parliament in 1981 when he won a by-election to represent the electorate of Lepā, and was subsequently appointed deputy prime minister and minister of finance in the government of Prime Minister Tofilau Eti Alesana. He also held the portfolios of Tourism and Trade, Commerce & Industry. After Tofilau resigned in 1998, Tuilaʻepa became the prime minister and HRPP party leader. At the 2021 election, the HRPP lost their majority but Tuilaʻepa refused to leave office, leading to the 2021 Samoan constitutional crisis. The crisis was resolved by Samoa's Court of Appeal on 23 July 2021, which ruled that Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa had been prime minister since 24 May. On 26 July, Tuilaʻepa conceded defeat and assumed the role of opposition leader the following day.

Tuilaʻepa was indefinitely suspended from the legislative assembly on 24 May for breach of parliamentary privileges and contempt of parliament. The indefinite suspension was recommended by the privileges and ethics committee. He later described his suspension as a "witch hunt". However, he was later reinstated on 13 September following a Supreme Court ruling that voided the suspension. The privileges and ethics committee then reconvened and suggested that Tuilaʻepa be suspended again for 24 months until 4 July 2023. Parliament approved the recommendation on 19 October. His first tenure as opposition leader effectively ended in November 2022 after the speaker of parliament announced the legislature's recognition of Tuilaʻepa in the role had ceased due to his suspension. He was later succeeded by Fonotoe Pierre Lauofo. After the suspension was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on 4 July 2023, he again became opposition leader.

Early life and education

Tuilaʻepa, born in the village of Lepā on the island of Upolu, attended high school at St Joseph's College in Lotopa and at St Paul's College, Auckland in New Zealand. He then obtained a master's from the University of Auckland, becoming the first Samoan to receive a master's degree in commerce.

Early career

He worked as a civil servant for the Samoan treasury, and then became director of the Economics Department, and then deputy financial secretary. He then moved to Brussels, where he worked for the European Economic Community and for Coopers & Lybrand.

Tuilaʻepa first won election to represent the parliamentary constituency of Lepā in 1981, after the death of its previous representative. Tuilaʻepa was appointed minister of economic affairs in 1982 and minister of finance in 1984. He served as deputy prime minister and minister of finance under Tofilau Eti Alesana following the Human Rights Protection Party's return to power after the coalition government of Vaʻai Kolone and Tupua.

Premiership (1998–2021)

In 1998, Tofilau resigned due to ill health, making Tuilaʻepa the prime minister. Tuilaʻepa led his HRPP party to re-election in the 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 general elections. In 2012, he became Samoa's longest serving prime minister, surpassing the tenure of his predecessor, Tofilau Eti Alesana. At the time of his electoral defeat in 2021, Tuilaʻepa was also the second longest serving incumbent prime minister in the world, only behind Cambodia's Hun Sen..

Following a Cabinet reshuffle after the 2001 Samoan general election, Tuilaʻepa relinquished the post of minister of finance to Misa Telefoni Retzlaff, who also became the new deputy prime minister. The reason given for Tuilaʻepa's relinquishment of the Ministry of Finance was the amount of responsibility and work involved being both prime minister and minister of finance and to do the job properly required a full-time minister.

Domestic policy

Traffic lane switch Tuilaʻepa's government passed highly controversial legislation in 2009 to switch Samoan road use from right to left-hand traffic."Samoa provokes fury by switching sides of the road" , The Telegraph, 3 July 2009"Right-to-left driving switch upsets Samoans", ABC Radio Australia, 12 August 2008 The controversy resulted in a peaceful demonstration which drew more than 15,000 people the largest protest demonstration in Samoan history, and to the founding of the People's Party, a political party established to protest against changing sides."People’s Party to elect leaders", Samoa Observer, 9 November 2008

Time zone shift In 2011, Tuilaʻepa's government introduced a bill to shift Samoa's time zone west of the International Date Line, to facilitate economic relations with Australia, New Zealand and Asia, by ensuring that Samoa would no longer be one calendar day away from them. According to Samoa Observer editor Keni Lesa, many Samoans viewed the bill as "another crazy idea from our crazy prime minister". Opposition politicians also criticised it, arguing that it would not increase exports, and that it would in fact deprive Samoa of "its unique tourism selling point as the last place on earth to see the sun", just east of the Date Line. Tuilaʻepa responded by calling opposition MP Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi (of the Tautua Samoa Party) "very stupid", adding that "only an idiot" would fail to see the merits of the bill.

The bill, however, earned the support of the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and the vast majority of the private and finance sector. The major benefit being that, given that most trade was conducted with New Zealand and Australia along with a growing trade sector with eastern Asia, being on the same day as these major trading partners would lead to improvements in productivity, as more trade could be facilitated during a shared five-day week, as opposed to the previous situation of only sharing four week days to conduct business.

Christianity as state religion In June 2017, the Samoan Parliament passed a bill to increase support for Christianity in the country's constitution, including adding a clause in Article 1 stating that "Samoa is a Christian nation founded of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit". According to The Diplomat, "What Samoa has done is shift references to Christianity into the body of the constitution, giving the text far more potential to be used in legal processes." The preamble to the constitution already described the country as "an independent State based on Christian principles and Samoan custom and traditions."

Foreign policy Tuilaʻepa emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Fijian interim leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who came to power in the 2006 Fijian coup d'état. In early 2009, after Bainimarama accused Samoa's foreign policy of being dictated by New Zealand, Tuilaʻepa questioned whether Bainimarama was sober when he made the claim. In response, Bainimarama accused Tuilaʻepa of being "un-Pacific", which led Tuilaʻepa to reiterate that Bainimarama had showed little respect towards other Pacific leaders, citing Bainimarama rescinding assurances to leaders at a regional meeting in Tonga that elections would be held in May 2008 and not attending regional meetings of the Pacific Islands Forum in Niue and Papua New Guinea. Tuilaʻepa added that Bainimarama's actions could not be described as the "Pacific way".

In late 2011, Tuilaʻepa initiated a meeting of Polynesian leaders which led, in November, to the formal launching of the Polynesian Leaders Group, a regional grouping intended to co-operate on a variety of issues including culture and language, education, responses to climate change, and trade and investment in Polynesian countries. The group was in part a response to the Melanesian Spearhead Group.Andrews, John. "NZ may be invited to join proposed ‘Polynesian Triangle’ ginger group", Pacific Scoop, 19 September 2011

2021 Samoan general election

During the 2021 general election held on 9 April 2021, Tuilaʻepa was re-elected to his parliamentary constituency of Lepā unopposed. Preliminary results from the general election indicated that the HRPP had secured 24 seats, FAST 23 and Tautua Samoa and an Independent both winning one seat. An accounting error was detected in the Vaimauga No. 2 constituency, which had incorrectly displayed the Tautua Samoa candidate leading ahead of the HRPP candidate. The final election results indicated that the HRPP and FAST were tied with 25 seats each, with newly-elected independent MP Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio holding the balance of power.

After the election, the HRPP and FAST entered into talks with Tuala in an attempt to form a majority government. The Samoan Electoral Commission later announced that the 10% female quota in parliament had not been fulfilled, adding an extra parliamentary seat which went to the HRPP. Tuala then agreed to enter into a coalition with FAST, resulting in a hung parliament in which both parties had 26 seats each.

On the evening of 4 May 2021, O le Ao o le Malo (Head of State) Tuimalealiʻifano Vaʻaletoʻa Sualauvi II announced that a second election would be held in order to resolve the deadlock. This occurred before any of the electoral petitions were resolved. The HRPP endorsed the decision, whilst it was opposed by FAST. Tuilaʻepa reportedly advised Tuimalealiʻifano to issue the proclamation. The HRPP then began to campaign for the second election, despite the legality of it being in question.

2021 Samoan constitutional crisis

On 17 May, the Supreme Court of Samoa ruled that the addition of the new seat was unconstitutional, giving FAST a parliamentary majority. The court subsequently overturned the voiding of the 9 April election results and declared that the call for a new election had no legal authority, and ordered parliament to convene within 45 days of the original polling. Tuimalealiʻifano then issued a statement, proclaiming that parliament convene on 24 May. This was retracted shortly after, triggering a constitutional crisis. Tuimalealiʻifano did not elaborate on why the decision was made.

Tuilaʻepa denounced the court decision to convene parliament as "illegal", and that the Supreme Court justices should be charged for breaching the state of emergency regulations. Tuilaʻepa also announced that he and the HRPP caucus would refuse to be sworn in when parliament convened. On the evening of 23 May, a day before the scheduled convention of parliament, parliament speaker Leaupepe Toleafoa Faafisi purported to cancel the swearing-in ceremony in defiance of the Supreme Court's ruling. The following morning, in his capacity as caretaker minister of parliament, Tuilaʻepa ordered the speaker to deny Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa and the FAST caucus access to the parliament building. After they were sworn in in an ad hoc ceremony outside the building, he accused them of treason.

On 29 May, Tuilaʻepa was cited for contempt of court for not obeying the court's orders and using offensive language towards the Supreme Court justices.

On 3 June, Tuilaʻepa entered into negotiations with Fiamē to discuss a political transition. After only two sessions the talks reached an impasse, with Tuilaʻepa refusing to either leave the prime ministership or convene parliament unless all petitions were resolved.

Due to various electoral court petitions, the HRPP's seat count in parliament fell from 25 to 17 whilst FAST maintained its 26-seat majority.