There has been some recent concern in the local media over the plight of fishermen as an aftermath of the recent tsunami. Rightly, a range of factors such as loss of boats, lack of capital as well as lower yields have been identified which obviously need to be addressed and hopefully overcome. While these are precipitating factors, no mention has been made as to the more fundamental deep-seated contributing factors as to the predicament of these fishermen.

In the first place we are talking of small-scale in-shore fishermen and not the large scale trawler fishing industry. Therefore the moot question is who owns and controls the industry? Some research has identified that it is the trawler owners who dominate the entire fishing business in terms of capital investment, market access and transport.

Indeed, regrettably, it is not uncommon to find trawlers encroaching into inshore waters thereby adversely affecting the catch of in-shore fishermen. What is worse is that because the trawlers literally 'scrape' the sea bed ('pukat harimau'), in-shore fishermen have loudly complained that baskets full of good quality 'anak ikan' caught in the trawler nets have ended up in fertiliser factories. So much for depleting fish resources.

This problem of trawlers vs inshore-fishermen had been with us for sometime. The basic question from the beginning was why the fishing industry was not planned and organised so that the industry could develop in such a way where both in-shore and trawler fishing could be complementary.

Some inshore fishermen could then 'graduate' to becoming trawler fishermen and the culture of fishing could have been maintained. As it is, in-shore fishing is gradually but surely dying out and many fishermen (or their children) in fact now work as 'awak-awak' (workers) on trawlers.

This is an occupation that is totally alien to their way of life where they have to spend long periods on the open seas and, as might be expected, face loneliness and boredom. It should therefore not surprising if some of these workers take to drugs.

An official of the Kedah state government (a former student of mine), during an informal discussion, pointed out that they are aware that some trawler 'towkays' even pay the wages of the 'awak awak' in the form of drugs. To the former, this is a suitable arrangement. The 'awak-awak' become dependent on the 'towkay' for the drugs and the latter has no problem of worker turnover.

Indeed, in a way this question may seem like a classic case of a traditional income-earning occupation having to make way for capitalist penetration through investment in new technology. But regrettably, this is not quite the case in this instance.

The original legislation had stipulated that the minimum tonnage of boats for trawlers so that they could only operate in deep waters and thereby not encroach into in-shore catchment areas. As far as I am aware, this legislation was subsequently amended to allow for boats of lesser tonnage to be converted to trawlers.

The government, under the Tun Razak Rural Development Plan (Red Book), set up a number of institutions to facilitate projects under the rural development programmes. Fishermen cooperatives were started to include both trawler and in-shore fishermen so that they could work together and pool their resources for mutual benefit.

It is not for me to comment on the state of these cooperatives today but judging from the situation not all cooperatives are operating as they should. But there may be some light at the end of the tunnel.

I understand that a Human Rights Commission recently addressed a fishermen cooperative in Sabah on the question of fundamental rights and as a result, the cooperative filed a court injunction to stop the construction of a fertiliser factory intended for 'anak ikan'.