Autonomy Watch: Maluku marine development needs boost: Legislator

More bylaws are needed to regulate marine and fishing management in Maluku if the central government wants to make good its promise to make the province into a national fish production center that helps residents, says a House member.

Legislator Anna Latuconsina said more regulations were needed to protect Maluku’s residents from practices that deny them their rightful benefits from the province’s rich marine resources.

Anna made the statement to respond to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s declaration of Maluku as national fish production center during the Sail Banda international maritime event earlier this month.

“The government must do something … and what is more important is... don’t let the people end up just watching. I hope there will be a regulation at the central level that can accommodate this interest,” she told The Jakarta Post.

She added that the regulations, which she hoped would be issued by the central government and the local administration, were urgently needed to sustainable develop and manage marine resources.

At a speech commemorating the Sail Banda festival’s peak, Yudhoyono pledged government support of Maluku’s marine development, saying that the province was in the middle of a rich fishing area that spanned the Arafura, Seram and Banda seas that could produce up to 1.64 million of fish per year.

Anna said the rich potential has not yet resulted in the prosperity for the local fishermen on the coast or on the province’s small islands.

“Most of the people of the Aru Islands, for example, are economically poor,” Anna said.

The reality is ironic since Aru’s waters can produce up to 771,000 tons of fish a year, according to marine civilization and development studies center data, she said.

If the price of fish is $5,000 per ton then the area can yield US$3.85 billion a year, but only 34.14 percent of the potential catch has been exploited, she said.

Maluku is the largest contributor to the marine and fish sector, but most of its contribution is not returned to the region due to an income distribution system that does not benefit producers, Anna said.

Four Regional Representatives Council (DPD) members from Maluku proposed that the House cooperate with the provincial administration to prepare for the concept of the national fish production center, she said.

“They also demanded that the income distribution ratio be changed from previous 80:20 to 60:40 between the central government and the provincial administration,”
Anna said.

The situation, she said, made it urgent to revise the 2004 Law on Central and Regional Financial Balance, which bases the regional general allocation fund on population and land area.

Maluku land area accounts for only 7.6 percent of the province’s total area of 581,375 square kilometers, while its water area accounts for 92.4 percent.

The population of Maluku is relatively small. In 2009, the province’s population was 1.4 million, 0.6 percent of the national population, according to Central
Statistics Agency.

“The central government’s budget for the province is very small — only some 6.3 percent of the total budget. This is unfair,” Anna said.

Maluku provincial administration spokesman Semmy Huwae said the President’s statement reflected the central government’s political commitment, but was not supported by enough regulation and infrastructure.

“There is a need for regulation to speed up infrastructure development to realize the plan,” he said.

He said the main problem as lack of adequate infrastructure and facilities in the province, as well as a popular focus on land development, not marine development.

“Our target is to open an international marine and fishery market in Maluku in 10 to 15 years,” he said.