Samoans are reportedly mystified by their prime minister's dramatic decision to switch to the other side of the international dateline.
After more than a century on the east of the dateline, Samoa will redraw the already wobbly line in December so the Pacific nation lies on the west, jumping a day into the future to be in line with Australia and New Zealand.
The country's newly re-elected prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has defended the move, saying it will make it much easier for his people to do business with Samoa's main trading partners.
But Keni Lesa, editor of Samoa Observer, said most people the national newspaper had contacted were puzzled by the decision.
"To be honest, most people don't understand why he's done this and many people really aren't happy about it," he told AAP on Wednesday.
The tourism industry, in particular, were disappointed Samoa would lose the ability to market itself as the last place on earth to see the sun each day.
"That was a big bonus and that will be lost completely under the change," Mr Lesa said.
He said residents were growing weary of Mr Tuilaepa's non-consultative style.
The prime minister was the mastermind behind the September 2009 decision to switch to driving on the left.
The move was condemned widely by Samoans and international traffic experts, but Mr Tuilaepa pushed forward with it, saying: "this is good for you. You will see."
He also introduced daylight savings in 2010 with little warning.
Writing in his latest editorial, Mr Lesa said people were growing tired of their leader's "crazy ideas" and undemocratic decision-making.
"We have a prime minister who is so powerful he can do anything he likes," the editor wrote.
"Whatever brilliant idea he wakes up with tomorrow, there is nothing there that can stop him from implementing it.
"Since he is capable of changing our constitution on any day of the week, we fear the day when we're all going to wake up in a snowy country somewhere close to Russia."
Many people he spoke to "were still trying to get used to the idea of daylight savings, which meant their children were leaving home in darkness to go to school.
"'So another change doesn't surprise us', they said. 'It's not as if it makes a difference if we disagree'," he wrote.
He said many people felt the government should be dealing with more pressing issues facing the country, like poverty and violence.
The change will be trialled from December 29 and fully implemented in January 2012.
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