When Indonesian lawmakers passed a hugely controversial deregulation bill on the evening of Oct. 5, Sulaiman was with his fellow fishermen who had just returned home from the Java Sea.
Sulaiman was dreading the decision that could change his life and those of 800,000 small fishers across Indonesia. Before the passage of the new legislation known as the omnibus law but formally the Job Creation Act small fishers were defined by the state as being those with boats of smaller than 10 gross tonnage (GT). That came with certain benefits, including being allowed to operate without a permit, free enrollment in the national health care program, access to fishing gear, and fuel subsidies.
With the passage of the omnibus law, however, the definition of small fishers has been discarded one of more than 1,100 articles from 75 existing laws that have been overhauled in the government’s deregulation drive. For Sulaiman and his peers, that means the benefits and subsidies channeled toward poor often artisanal fishers will now be open to all, including the operators of large fleets.
With the implementation of the Job Creation Act in Indonesia, small and traditional fishers will be the first that stand to lose, Sulaiman told Mongabay on Oct. 13.
Mongabay has reviewed the changes in the Job Creation Act, comparing them with the existing laws they overwrite, and consulted with legal, fisheries and environmental experts. All agree that these changes will hurt the livelihoods of small and traditional fishers and potentially clear the way to overfishing of Indonesia’s waters, with foreign fishing fleets standing to benefit the most. The experts say the new law also threatens the degradation of Indonesia’s coastal and marine ecosystems for the sake of infrastructure development and tourism.
Sulaiman, now 38, has been a fisherman since 1998, right after graduating from middle school. He learned the skills from his parents. They live together on Pari Island, part of a clutch of islets off the coast of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.
Sulaiman fishes for mackerel tuna every day, selling most of what he catches at the local market and bringing the rest home. Small and tradition fishers like Sulaiman today account for the majority of Indonesia’s fishing fleet, operating a combined 650,000 boats across the archipelago. But they also constitute one of the poorest professions in the country.
Only a few voice the interests of small fishers. Meanwhile, we catch the fish that feeds the workers and laborers, Sulaiman said.
Under the new law, small fishers are no longer defined by the size of their boat. Experts say this is problematic because fishers with bigger boats and more capital can now claim to be a small fisher to obtain the associated benefits.
The definition of small fisher is very important because it’s connected to exemptions for several requirements and for punishments, and to giving incentives and facilities from the government, said Stephanie Juwana, a co-founder and director of international engagement and policy reform at the think tank Indonesia Ocean Justice and Initiative (IOJI).
At the end, such an opaque formula will create riders that cause injustice for the real small fishers, she added.
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