Peter Waqavonovono and I [Mick Beddoes] issued a statement today to announce the name of the proposed political party we are establishing.
The name agreed to for the proposed political party is HOPE.
The name represents the key aims of the proposed political party which are to restore Honor, Opportunity, Prosperity and Equality for all, H.O.P.E. The color green represents the environment and the proposed party’s intentions to preserve it.
We also confirmed that Peter Waqavonovono has agreed to be one of the 3 Interim Vice President’s on the National Executive. Other officials who have been identified, will be named shortly.
The Interim Executive will manage the proposed party until the first AGM following its successful registration.
Discussions with other individuals, groups and political parties’ are continuing and will be ongoing.
If you are interested in being part of our crusade please email your personal details to: [email protected]
Coups do not contribute to our economic growth and well-being, they destroy it - Mick Beddoes
We have been subjected to many claims of record economic growth rates by the Fiji First Government, and knowing Fiji First’s addiction to spin, exaggeration and plain misinformation, I decided to do some research of my own to try and establish the facts.
I decided to go back to our post-Independence era, from 1970 to 1986 and compare its average annual growth rate to each of the post-coup recovery periods of the Rabuka Coup - 1987 to 1999, Speight -2000 to 2006 and Bainimarama – 2007 to 2016 and I also listed all of the Cyclones over the same period to allow us to factor in their impact on growth rates.
What I found was that after each of the 3 coups the average growth rate over the recovery period before the next coup occurred, never returned to the growth rates we enjoyed before coups.
For example the average post-Independence growth rate from 1970 to 1999 (16 years) was 4.17%. The average growth rate post Rabuka coup from 1987 to 1999 (13 years) was 2.57%, the average growth rate post Speight Coup (7 years) was 2.25% and the average growth rate post Bainimarama coup from 2007 to 2016 is 2.0%
Of course Fiji First claims of a 4.4% growth rate relates only to the last 4 years from 2013 to 2016 and completely ignores, their first 6 years from 2007 to 2012 when the average growth rate was 0.33%. That’s when they decided to create the NRA and pumped $1.5 billion into infrastructure pushing the average growth rate up to 4.4%. But despite this the actual average growth rate from 2007 to 2016 is just 2% and as most people know that state sponsored growth such as we have, is not sustainable in the long term.
Therefore 29 years after the Rabuka coup, 16 years after the Speight coup and 10 years after the Bainimarama coup our average growth rate today is still less than half of what we once enjoyed before coups disrupted our lives.. Add to this the more than $10 billion in lost incomes, growth and opportunity of our people and the message becomes very clear.
Coups do not contribute to our economic growth and the well-being of our people. They destroy it.