TERENGGANU fishermen have appealed to the Pakatan Harapan government to increase their cost-of-living allowance, especially with the monsoon season starting this week.

They also hope for new incentives in Budget 2019, which will be tabled for the first time by the PH administration tomorrow.

Fishing boat skipper Ismail Mat Diah said fishermen in the east coast will not head out starting this week due to rough seas.

“The monsoon season is definitely hard on fishermen,” the 63-year-old said at the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM) jetty in Kuala Besut, Terengganu.

“We hope the government will give us a special allowance for the next three months. The RM200 that we receive now will not be enough.

“If the fishermen do not go out to sea, their families will go hungry,” said Ismail, who has been a fisherman since 14.

On Tuesday, the Meteorological Department warned of heavy rain and strong winds of up to 50kph in the east coast until Saturday.

Rough seas with waves as high as 3.5m are dangerous for any sea-related activities, including fishing, said the department in a statement.

Another skipper, Mohamad Awang, also hopes the government will consider giving cash incentives to retired fishermen.

“Incentives are not only needed by those who are fit to go (catch fish), but also the older ones. We fishermen are people of the sea, not of the land,” the 69-year-old told The Malaysian Insight.

Ismail added that their fate is just like that of rubber tappers, who will also lose their daily income for three months during the rainy season from November to January.

“What do we do in these three months?”

The previous Barisan Nasional government had introduced a monsoon season scheme, giving a RM200 monthly aid to smallholders and rubber tappers for the three wet months.

From June 2008, licensed fishermen with registered vessels, and individual fishing vessel owners, have been given a cost-of-living allowance of between RM200 and RM300 per month.

Last June, new Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Salahuddin Ayub said the PH government would not abolish the scheme for fishermen.

However, a month later, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad threw a bombshell, saying the fishermen’s allowance should be stopped as the payments were made regardless of whether they caught fish, and this was something the government could not afford.

He also said the payments made these people dependent, and they no longer worked to earn an income.

Yesterday, when launching the National Policy on Industry 4.0 in Kuala Lumpur, the prime minister reiterated that Malaysians must stop asking the government for incentives, as success is driven by a person’s own efforts.

He said it is the wrong mentality to keep asking the government for incentives.

“When we try to tell people how to make more money, they ask me, are you going to give incentives?

“We are telling them to make more money. What incentive do you want? That is the incentive – to make more money.”

Teaching them skills

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) economics lecturer Nur Azura Sanusi said the government allowance will not increase the quality of life for fishermen, who are mostly from the B40, or bottom 40%  of households, group.

“The cash is used up very quickly. They should be taught skills, which last longer,” she said in Kuala Terengganu.

She pointed to the joint project undertaken by UMT and the East Coast Economic Region Development Council, involving fishermen from Kuala Nerus and Setiu.

The project aims to teach fishermen new skills, so that they can be economically independent and increase their income by being involved in the downstream activity of manufacturing fish by-products, she said.

Wives of fishermen are also given entrepreneurship courses, while their children are encouraged to do well academically.

“The most important thing is to change the mindset of fishermen that it’s sufficient to earn just enough to eat,” said Nur Azura.

Based on 2017 statistics, Terengganu has 9,533 licensed fishermen, of which 7,114 are locals and 2,419 are foreigners. Almost 75% of them are Bumiputeras. – November 1, 2018.