Leiataualesa Vaiao Ala'ilima | |
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Member of the Samoa Parliament for Aiga-i-le-Tai | |
In office 26 February 1988 –26 April 1996 | |
Preceded by | Sa'u Lo'ivao |
Succeeded by | Togia Taloa |
Personal details | |
Born | 29 November 1921 Gataivai,Samoa |
Died | 27 November 2016 94) Pago Pago,American Samoa | (aged
Leiataualesa Vaiao John Ala'ilima (29 November 1921 - 27 November 2016) was a Samoan politician and Cabinet Minister. He was the husband of writer Fay Calkins. [1]
Leiataualesa was born in Gataivai,Samoa [2] and educated at Lahainaluna High School in Hawaii. [3] He served in the United States Marine Corps. [3] He later attended McPherson College in Kansas,and American University in Washington,D.C., [3] where he completed an M.A. thesis on Democracy:Samoan Style. [4] He married writer Fay Calkins while studying in Washington. [5] Their early life together is chronicled in her book,My Samoan Chief. [5]
Leiataualesa initially ran a banana plantation,but when Samoa gained independence in 1962 he became the country's first Public Service Commissioner. [5] He took a leave of absence in 1964 to contest the 1964 Western Samoan general election,but was unsuccessful. [6] In February 1964 he suspended the Government Printer,Frank Sprague,for regularly being found in the Apia Club during work hours. [7] Sprague was subsequently dismissed during Leiataualesa's leave of absence,challenged his dismissal in court,and had it overturned. [7] Leiataualesa initially ignored the court ruling, [7] but paid Sprague up until the end of his contract after Cabinet instructed him to obey it. [8] Later in 1964 he was instructed by Cabinet to implement a new policy to dismiss any public servant who had deliberately deceived a government department. The policy was intended to target harbourmaster Captain Harry Moors,who had been critical of government policy,but Leiataualesa pointed out that he had not been convicted of deceiving a government department,and instead dismissed eleven senior public servants,many of whom were allies of the government. [9] Leiataualesa contract as Public Service Commissioner was not renewed,and he was replaced by Tufuga Samuelu Atoa in 1965. [10] Leiataualesa subsequently moved to Hawaii,where he was a research fellow at the East–West Center. [3]
He returned to Samoa in 1986, [5] and was elected to the legislative Assembly of Samoa in the 1988 election. [11] he served as Minister of Justice,Labour,Public Service,and Public Works before retiring from politics in 1996. [1]
Following his retirement from politics Leiataualesa worked as a research fellow at the National University of Samoa in the Samoan Studies program. [1] He published a book of oral histories and genealogies,O tatou Tupuaga:Our Ancestors. [1]
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