Tapunuu Niko Lee Hang (born 1953 or 1954; died 29 November 2022) was a

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

n politician and

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

. He was a member of the

Human Rights Protection Party The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP, ) is a Samoan political party. It was founded in 1979 and dominated Samoan party politics for decades thereafter, leading every government until their defeat in 2021. Former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele ...

. Hang was an

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...

by profession and a former

Public Trustee In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

. He was educated at

Waikato University The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in numerous disciplines such as education, socia ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and the

University of New England University of New England may refer to: * University of New England (Australia), in New South Wales, with about 26,000 students * University of New England (United States), in Biddeford, Maine, with about 6,000 students See also * New England Coll ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He was first elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Samoa The Legislative Assembly (), also known as the Parliament of Samoa (), is the national legislature of Samoa, seated at Apia, where the country's central administration is situated. Samoan Parliament is composed of two parts: the O le Ao o le M ...

as one of two parliamentary representatives reserved for Individual Voters in a by-election in December 2001. In January 2002 he was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary to Minister of Justice. In 2004 he was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary to minister of Revenue. He was re-elected at the 2006 election and appointed

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

. He was re-elected again in the 2011 election, but replaced as Finance Minister by Faumuina Tiatia Liuga. From 2012 to 2014 Hang opposed plans to replace the individual voter seats with two urban seats. After serving a term as a backbencher, he was re-appointed to Cabinet following the 2016 election as Minister of Works Transport and Infrastructure. In September 2018 he claimed that the chief executive of the Ministry of Works, Afamasaga Su’a Pou Onesemo, had been fired for poor management. He retracted the claim two days later. Following the abolition of his urban voters seat he contested the new seat of Vaimauga No. 3 in the

2021 Samoan general election General elections were held in Samoa on 9 April 2021 to determine the composition of the 17th Parliament. The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), which had been in government for most of the time since 1982, was led into the election by Tui ...

and was re-elected. Tapunuu died at Tupua Tamasese Meaole National Hospital in

Motoʻotua Motootua is a settlement in Samoa. It is home to the Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole Hospital. References

Populated places in Samoa {{Samoa-geo-stub ...

on 29 November 2022, at the age of 68.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee Hang, Niko 1950s births category:2022 deaths Samoan people of Chinese descent Members of the Legislative Assembly of Samoa Ministers of finance of Samoa Government ministers of Samoa University of Waikato alumni University of New England (Australia) alumni Samoan civil servants Year of birth missing 21st-century Samoan politicians