Commodore Bainimarama made the comments while opening a two-day mini-economic summit titled, “Rebuilding Confidence and Growing the Economy.”
“The holding of elections for the mere shake of returning the country to parliamentary democracy has been counter productive in the previous instances in the wake of the coup,” Bainimarama said.
“Fiji was pressured by the international community and it continues to be now — we cannot and must not bend to such pressures merely to satisfy the purposes of convenience of others. Our national self-worth and sovereignty and our collectiveness and interest are of paramount importance. We must address our deep rooted problems, we cannot ill afford to repeat the mistakes of the past,” he said.
The military chief said there is a need to break the coup culture in Fiji.
“We must break the cycle of coups and in restoring parliamentary democracy, we must also ensure it will be durable going forward,” he said.
Bainimarama said the interim government is committed to ensuring investor confidence in moving Fiji forward and to raise the citizens’ standards of living
“As leader of the interim government, I’m deeply committed to ensure durable stability in our nation and also for every citizen regardless of ethnicity or status, to enjoy equal rights and merit base equality of opportunity to progress and uplift their living condition,” he said. The need to restore investor and business confidence, I fully recognized that. I wish to reiterate and affirm that this is a private sector that must lead the way for us to achieve high rates of sustainable growth, through increased productive investments.”
