North Sumatra fisherfolk live in poverty and past glory

North Sumatra fisherfolk live in poverty and past glory

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Kamaluddin gently guided his 14-foot long boat to the pier
where fishermen living in Block E of the Nelayan Indah housing
complex tie up their boats.

The complex is located only 2.5 kilometers from Jl. Yos
Sudarso, the main road to Belawan Port near Medan.

Not until he had tied up his boat did his fellow fishermen
approach and ask if he had a good catch.

"Not really," he replied softly and reluctantly. After tying
up his boat, he handed his catch to Pak Udin for weighing.

Pak Udin is a trader who usually buys fish directly from
fishermen at the pier. Kamaluddin, 45, received Rp 15,000 for his
catch that day.

Like the rest of the fishermen in his Nelayan Indah
neighborhood, Kamaluddin can barely support his family with what
he earns from the sea.

He often has to borrow money from friends to meet the daily
needs of his wife and two children, the oldest of which is in
elementary school.

Also struggling to survive is Ngateman, 38, a fisherman who
lives in the same neighborhood with his wife and four children.
The family has lived in a rented house in Nelayan Indah for seven
years because they cannot afford to buy their own home.

Ngateman earns between Rp 15,000 and Rp 20,000 a day, which is
far from enough to support his family. Three of his children are
in elementary school. Often, he doesn't make enough to buy fuel
and rent a fishing boat.

Ngateman explained that he had to pay Rp 10,000 a day to rent
a boat, plus Rp 8,500 for the fuel. In Nelayan Indah, diesel fuel
costs Rp 1,400 per liter.

Fishermen head out on their boats every day at about 2 a.m.,
when the sea is calm and the fish active. They usually return
home at 10 a.m.

"Besides, we are not worried about drowning when the sea is
calm," Kamaluddin said.

The dwindling catches by these fishermen has been blamed on
sophisticated trawlers, which have been formally banned in areas
reserved for small-scale fishermen but continue to operate in
these areas regardless.

"Now, low tide and high tide does not make a difference. Fish
are scarce," Kamaluddin said.

All of the fishermen here hope that the government will get
serious about banning the trawlers.

But it is not only the trawlers that they must contend with,
but also the deteriorating security in the eastern Sumatra seas.
Dreaded pirates operate freely on the seas, robbing and killing
fishermen that become their prey. Over the past year alone, 24
fishermen from Greater Medan reportedly have been killed by
pirates.

So afraid of these criminals are the fishermen that they often
do not go out in their boats.

Security officials have identified the areas of Tapakkuda and
Kuala Serapuh along the North Sumatra-Aceh border as the most
active piracy areas. A number of pirates have been caught in
these areas.

"They (those arrested) are members of the Free Aceh Movement,"
a security officer said.

The acute poverty has not only left fishermen unable to live a
decent life, but also unable to make the payments on their homes.

Nelayan Indah neighborhood chief Syahdanur Hasibuan said many
residents were forced to sell their houses before they had paid
them off.

He said there were only a few fishermen still living in the
housing complex, with most of the houses now occupied by civil
servants and businesspeople who had purchased the properties from
the fishermen.

Built in 1993 on 420 hectares of land on the initiative of
then Medan mayor Bachtiar Djafar, in cooperation with the State
University of Sumatra Utara, Nelayan Indah was originally
intended to house the fishermen of Belawan and Labuhan. Later,
the village also accommodated fishermen from Deli Serdang,
Tanjungbalai and Labuhanbatu.

"Today only 25 percent of the 6,066 people living in the
village are fishermen," Syahdanur said.

When the village was built in 1993, the fishermen had to pay
Rp 100,000 to Rp 300,000 as a down payment depending on the size
of the house they bought. House payments were set at Rp 1,000 to
Rp 1,500 a day for a period of 15 years.

In the first two years after the village was built, most
fishermen could pay the installments, but in the third year a
number of the poorer fishermen began to sell their houses at low
prices.

A house on an eight-by-19 meter plot of land was sold for Rp 2
million. Some fishermen even sold their houses for Rp 300,000
without official consent.

The new owners must continue to pay the house installments.

The houses in the village were built on stilts some 1.5 meters
above ground to avoid flooding. Now, many of the houses have been
renovated and rebuilt with brick and other materials.

The original idea and design of this village of fisherfolk,
once the pride of Medan, has now become nothing but a memory.