Right-to-left driving switch upsets Samoans
Updated
More than a century of motoring history is being overturned in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa. Samoans have always driven on the right side of the road like their neighbours in American Samoa, but from next year they are going to switch to driving on the left. The switch has upset plenty of people in Samoa and even spawned a new political party.
Presenter:Sean Dorney
Speakers: Toleafoa Toailoa, People's Party founder; opposition Tautua Samoa party leader Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi; lawyer Darryl Clarke; Roina Vavatau, the Chief Executive Officer of the Umbrella for Non Government Organisations; Samoa's Prime Minister, Tuila'epa Sa'ilele; commentator and former MP Afamasanga Toleafoa; Samoan car dealer Georgina Newton,
Dorney: The switch in driving from the right to the left has led to two major protest demonstrations in Apia and the man who's headed up the committee opposing the change, Toleafoa Toailoa, has decided he's only going to win the argument by getting into Parliament himself. He's established a new party called the People's Party and he'll be campaigning in the elections due in 2011 against the switch.
Toleafoa: It's a bad decision because it means that everybody will have to be re-learning a completely new lifestyle so to speak. Ever since Independence, ever since cars were introduced in this country, we've always been driving on the right side of the road.
Dorney: One of the current Oppositon Members of Parliament, Lealailepule Aiafi, says it's dangerous.
Aiafi: I've been a driver for over 20 years. It's very hard for me to adjust myself to the other side of the road. I think it poses a lot of danger and that's what we are scared of.
Dorney: The committee that Toleafoa Toailoa heads is called PASS - People Against Switching Sides - and it has launched legal action to try to block the change.
Toleafoa: Well, the dangers are very obvious. Here we have about 17,000 vehicles that are left-hand drive, driving on the right hand side of the road as opposed to a mere 2,000 at the most right-hand drive vehicles. So you will have the majority of vehicles with their drivers sitting on the wrong side of the road.
Dorney: One of the lawyers handling the case is Darryl Clarke who says the grounds include the claim that switching sides of the road infringes the Samoan people's constitutional right to life.
Clarke: The argument there is that the decision poses such a significant risk to life, that by changing there is a risk and a danger to basically the entire community that uses the roads that the fundamental rights of the people will be breached.
Dorney: Since the case began, the Samoan Parliament has passed the Road Transport Reform Act - and those opposing the change have amended their claim to challenge the legality of that law. One of the plaintiffs is Roina Vavatau, the Chief Executive Officer of the Umbrella for Non Government Organisations.
Roina: We were never consulted as civil society. And, if it has to be a law that will be for the best iinterests of the people at least the people must have a say into it.
Dorney: The switch in driving from the right to the left won't come in until next year but car dealers like Georgina Newton say the new car market has collapsed. She showed me around her company's vacant Hyundai new car lot.
Newton: We can't sell cars at the moment. There's low consumer confidence. We're not making any money. We're uncertain about the future. And we'd like some answers and some direction from the Government to help us make business plans.
Dorney: Samoa's Prime Minister, Tuila'epa Sa'ilele, maintains that the switch is justified because so many Samoans have migrated to Australia and New Zealand.
Tuila'epa: It makes common sense that we should equate our traffic laws with the traffic laws of New Zealand and Australia. You see, we have a very strong community spirit and very often our people in Australia and New Zealand would want to send a car back home to the parents to drive around, go to the plantations, take the grandchildren to school and to health for treatment and so forth. And so the benefit is endless.
Dorney: The President of PASS disagrees.
Toleafoa: We know how our people are living in New Zealand and Australia - a lot of them are struggling to make ends meet. And the way they live, they send money home regularly, almost on a weekly basis. Now where would they get the money to buy a vehicle to send over? It's such a ridiculous idea really.
Dorney: But the Prime Minister says he's not surprised by the public reaction from those based in the capital.
Tuila'epa: I expected the opposition from our people but at the same time since we have excellent contacts with people in the rural areas we were quite confident that we would be able to get through with their support. And, in any case, we held, we hold more than two-thirds majority.
Dorney: The Opposition in Parliament is hoping the issue will break Prime Minister Tuila'epa's stranglehold on power in Samoa come the next elections in 2011.
Aiafi: We're very against it. We have already told the people that if we come into power we are going to maintain or we're going to switch back to the side where we are driving on now.
Dorney: Afamasanga Toleafoa is an ex MP and he's been very critical of the switch in his regular political commentary newspaper column.
Afamasanga: There's a huge penalisation of people, I think certain people are really being penalised in terms of, you know, their financial investment and the future of their own businesses. On the other hand, the fear is that other people may, you know, we're just looking around to see who is in fact going to gain from this change. And we just hope it's not going to be the political forces behind this change.
Dorney: The car dealers remain nervous.
Newton: We're looking at importing eight right-hand drives in September but we don't have any sales on them yet! It's a bit of a gamble but if we don't do it somebody else will. So we'll just see how the market plays out.
