4. FINDINGS OF THE FIELD SURVEY

4.1 Socio-economic Characteristics And Living Conditions Of The Fishermen Interviewed

Origin and Household Head

Table 12 indicates that of 2,300 fishermen interviewed, 771 respondents (33.52%) had not originated in the areas they now live. This migrant nature of a large number of the fishermen is related to the problems of landless, lack of involvement in part-time activities and the low quality of housing. Of 2,300 respondents there wer 2,120 (92.17%) household heads.

Income ¹ and Family Size

The income derived from fishing as shown in Table 13 confirms the state of poverty of respondent fishermen. The mean is M$201-–250 per month per family ². (Over 90% of respondents received an average income of less than M$350 per month which is set as the poverty line today.) About 6.4% received M$350–500 a month while a negligible number (3.04%) earned more than M$500 per month. It should be mentioned that a significant number of respondents in Mersing received more than M$500 per month. Their incomes are based on the fixed shares of the catch. No income is distributed to fishermen when they do not go fishing.

Table 14 gives a picture of their total income including that derived from secondary employment. Even if the income from additional sources is included, 83% of respodents still earned income below the poverty line. The majority of respondents (76.48%) do not have additional source of income (Table 19).

¹ Here only cash income components are discussed. The prices at which payments for items in kind such as food provided by boat owner during fishing and take-home fish for home consumption, as well as bonus from boat owner (in case of crewmen) are not included. A mark-up of M$80–100 per month would be necessary to reach figures close to reality. The income indicates an average monthly income since income varies seasonally. For example, on the East Coast most traditional fishermen do not have income during the monsoon season (November-February).

² It should be pointed out that data on income from the village survey was not cross checked with information from official registers because such information was not available. One may suspect the accuracy of this information given by fishermen who may sometimes not be willing to provide the interviewers with the correct information. There was however, no way to prove the data incorrect.

It is apparent that the income from supplementary sources contributes to the of the betterment of their life considerably. This indicates that members of the fishermen's household often contribute directly to the family; income earned through involvement in a variety of part-time or full-time occupation.

This low income combined with the large number of dependents contributes to the degree of poverty. Table 15 shows that the range of household size is from one to fifteen, but the more commonly found are households containing 3–6 dependents which represent nearly 65% of the respondents. The other members of the family who are not dependent on them do not generally give them financial help.

Note : ¹ 180 out of 2,300 fishermen interviewed were single individual households either unmarried or widowed or divorced fishermen.

Educational Attainment

The Malay fishermen were mainly educated in Malay medium schools. The Chinese fishermen were predominantly educated in Chinese schools. The educational levels of the respondents are low. Table 16 shows that 74.78% attended primary schools for six years starting at the age of 6; 6.65% attended up to Form 1–3 and very few (2%) continued their education beyond Form 4. A significant number of respondents (16.43%) did not go to school at all.

¹ last for 6 years starting age 6
² last for 3 years
³ last for 2 years
⁴ pre-university

Ownership Of Boat

Table 17 shows that there are 820 (35.65%) boat owners among the entire respondents. The majority of them use either outboard or inboard powered boats which ranged from 3–5 HP for the former and 10–40 HP for the latter. Drift gill nets were most commonly used by them (54.27%), followed by trawl nets (12.44%) and lines and hooks (9.27%).

Fishing Days

A substantial majority (75%) of respondents replied that they went fishing more than 180 days a year (Table 18). 22.61% of respondents went to fishing between 90–179 days. Fishing was generally a full-time occupation for most of the respondents. From the table it is clear that the fishermen on the west coast went fishing more frequently (except for Tanjung Dawai/Yan) than those on the east coast where fishing is interrupted by the monsoon from November to February. In Tanjung Dawai/Yan over 30% of respondents were involved in agricultural activities mainly rice farming on a part-time basis. In Malaysia a fishermen is defined as any person who goes fishing more than 90 days a year.

Supplementary Occupation To Fishing

Only 541 of respondents (23.52%) were active in other form of economic activities which provide supplementary income to that derived from fishing (Table 19). The most important supplementary occupation was agriculture in which 294 respondents (12.78%) were involved. 87 fishermen (8.78%) worked as seasonal workers for various types of jobs such as oil palm harvesting, road construction, etc. and 48 respondents (2.09%) were involved in small business such as sundry-goods shops and small-scale trading of such local commodities as banana, papaya, pineapple, etc. Their involvement in aquaculture, mainly in cockle farming, is still very small (only 10 households).

Land Ownership, Its Useage and Registration

The low income of fishermen is to some extent caused by the lack of land ownership. Survey data indicated that about 30% of respondents own land (Table 20). As stated earlier, this factor correlates with the migrant nature of many fishermen. More than 55% of the landowners have access to land less than 1 acre; and 37% own land of 1 to 3 acres; and those who own land more than 3 acres comprise only 7% of the total.

With regard to the usage of land, some 40% of the landowners use land for house lot (Table 21). The another form of usage is a combination of house lot and plantation of crops, accounting for over 30%. 17.58% use land for rubber plantation.

60.41% of the respondents responded that the land is registered under the name of the household head; 21.57% under the name of parents; 6.35% under the wife's name. (Table 22).

Housing and Its Facilities

The ownership of a house is high among the respondents, with 86.57% indicating that they own their houses (Table 23). The houses are, however, not of high quality. They have one room and at the most two rooms with a flimsy partition. Houses were often built by the fishermen themselves. Within areas of the FDA, it is distinct that in Mersing many fishermen (41.57%) do not own a house. 87.47% answered that the ownership of house belongs to the household head and 8.09% to parent and only 1% to wife (Table 24).

The houses are in general poorly equipped with facilities like pipe water, electricity and toilet. Over 55% of their houses do not have pipe water (Table 25). A particularly poor level of available pipe water is evident on the east coast, i.e Besut (99.65%), Geting (92.66%) and Kuala Pahang/Nenasi (88.03%) are to be noted.

Electricity appears to be more readily available. 63.91% answered that they have electricity (Table 26). The regional characteristics are less distinct except for Manjung where only about 20% of respondents have electricity.

Table 27 indicates that about 40% of house had their own flush toilets. More than half of the houses (58.74%) had either shared toilets or did not have a toilet. The sanitation condition around the house is generally poor and the environment is not a healthy one. Both drainage and garbage disposal are very poor. The fishing villages in Kuala Kedah is an example of poor housing conditions and an unhealthy environment. Of 2,300 fishermen interviewed there were only 18 (0.78%) who had a telephone with them (Table 28).

Membership Status With Fishermen's Organizations

The Government has been encouraging cooperative effort among fishermen through the formation of fishermen's organizations. There are two types of organizations, the Fisheries Cooperative Society or Syarikat Kerjasama Nelayan (SKN) and Fishermen's Associations or Persatuan Nelayan (PN). SKN has been in existence over 35 years and is controlled under the Cooperative Society Act 1948, whilst PN is under the jurisdiction of the Fishermen's Associations Act enacted in 1971. Presently, there are 57 Fishermen's Associations with a membership of 44,300 and 43 Fishermen Cooperative Societies with a membership of 14,200 throughout Peninsular Malaysia. However, the government financial and technical assistance is concentrated only on PN with the intention of promoting the social and economic interests of PN members. SKN does not receive any assistance from the Government.

A significant majority of respondents (65.22%) answered that they were PN members and there were only 49 SKN members (Table 29). A substantial number of respondents (28.48%) are neither involved in SKN nor PN. This is some indication of the lack of confidence of many fishermen in fishermen's organizations. Other factors affecting this low involvement are (a) migratory nature of some fishermen, (b) the dissatisfaction with the management and officials and (c) the lack of efforts to campaign PN on the part of the management and officials to attract more fishermen.

¹ Persatuan Nelayan (Fishermen's Associations)
² Svarikat Kerjasama Nelayan (Fishermen's Cooperative Societies)

Future Plan

Table 30 indicates that a significant proportion (66.22%) of boatowners affirmed that they would be willing to improve the income from fishing through the improvement of boats, engines and gears. This is an indicator of the level of motivation of the majority who would like to improve themselves. It should be noted however that there were only a very few respondents who were interested in off-shore fishing. The great majority of respondents wish that they continue to fish in the same fishing grounds. About 30% of respondents did not believe that they can improve their production means under the present condition.

4.2 A Willingness To Change Occupation And/Or The Place Of Residence

A very high proportion of the respondents (i.e. 1 988 out of 2 300 or 87%) affirmed that they would be willing to change their occupation. Even if this entailed a physical move from their villages, 73.8% (or 1 476 of 1 998) indicated their interest to change occupation (Table 3). It is worthwhile to note this because the fishing community is generally conservative and many in the past did not favour moving out of their community beyond the social and cultural ties of their relatives, friends and families surroundings¹. It means that fishermen's willingness to change occupation should be analysed not only from the economic, but also social and psychological aspects. For example, the survey team encountered several respondents in Mersing and Kuala Pahang who drifted back from FELDA projects and according to them they would so even if they knew that this drift-back to fishing would not bring them the same amount of income that they were earning with FELDA. The team was also informed that there were a number of ex-fishermen settlers in the FELDA projects who still go fishing every weekend and work during week days as agricultural farmers. It is often said that fishermen are found by “the call of the sea” and are reluctant to adopt alternative occupations despite the relatively low incomes usually associated with small-scale fishing².

There are several variable factors which affects this willingness to change occupation and residence. An analysis will be made in this context based on the data collected from the field survey.

¹ Value Orientation of the Rural Population Toward Change in Peninsular Malaysia, by Malaysian Centre for Development Studies, Prime Minister's Office, 1976.

² Small-scale Fisheries of San Migual Bay, Philippines: Social aspects of Production and Marketing, ICLARM 1982.

Table 31 : Fishermen Willing To Change Occupation As Well As Changing Place Of Residence

Race

The race composition of 2,300 fishermen interviewed is given in Table 32 which indicates that Malay fishermen constituted 2,268 (98.61%), Chinese 19 (0.83%), Indian 11 (0.47%) and others 2 (0.09%). Of the total Malay fishermen, 1976 (87%) answered that they would be willing to change their occupation. Many of Chinese and Indian fishermen also indicated a similar intention.

Table 32 : Number And Percentage Of Fishermen Willing To Change Occupation By Race

Age

Table 33 shows that 31.3% of the 1,998 respondents who indicated interest to change their jobs were between the ages of 26–35; 29.33% between 36–45 and 19.32% between 46 –55. It was noted that a fairly large number of elderly fishermen over 61 years old showed an interest of changing occupation.

Table 33 : Number And Percentage Of Fishermen Willing To Change Job By Age

Educational Level

Table 34 indicates that the willingness to change occupation increases as the level of education of the respondents rises. All respondents who went to school with the grade of more than Form 5 wished to move out of fishing. This is understandable due to greater employment opportunities available to people with a higher level of education. In the rural sector, evidence that migrants from rural areas tend to be more educated suggests that the rural occupations no longer satisfy aspirations of many of the educated rural youth. However, even those who have never been to school expressed a high degree of interest in changing their occupation (75% of those respondents who did not attend school).

Ownership of Boats and Gear

The ownership of a boat and gear could be a factor which might tie strongly fishermen to fishing occupation. However, in the village survey it was revealed that this influence was limited. There were in total 820 boatowners among 2,300 fishermen interviewed. A large proportion of them (i.e. 644 or 78.54%) indicated their willingness to change their occupation (Table 35). Gill net are the most commonly used gear (445 or 54.27%) and 73% of them desired to change occupation. Out of 102 trawl boat owners, 73 fishermen (71.57%) wished to change jobs. A significant proportion of the respondents involved in purse seine (73%) and line and hooks (80%) also indicated their interest to change their occupation. This indicates that they are willing to migrate to other parts of the country to better occupation, despite of possession of fishing properties, reflect the growing difficulties among fishermen.

Table 35 : Number And Percentage of Boat-Owner Fishermen That Are Willing To Change Job By Types Of Boat

Income

Table 36 shows the fishermen's willingness to change occupation according to the income status. It is understandable that a greater proportion of the lower income groups would indicate their willingness to change occupation. Over 90% of respondents belonging to the income group of M$151 – 200 per month indicated such interest. It is however worthy of note that a substantial number of respondents in higher income groups were also interested in migrating out (i.e. 82.73% of the income group over M$500). It should be pointed out that this indication, particularly that of high income groups, would be dependent on the relative economic situation in other sectors of industry.

Table 36 : Fishermen's Willingness To Change Job By Income Status Total Income Including That Derived From Other Than Fishing

Ownership of Land and A House

315 (14%) of all respondents answered that they would be willing to change occupation and residence even if it required a move to a different district (Table 37). It appears that the ownership of land is not a strong force which might tie them to their home communities, as in the case of the ownership of boats/equipment/gears.

Table 37 : No. & % Of Fishermen Who Want To Change Job And Shift Even Though They Own House And Land

Factors influencing on unwillingness to change occupation and/or residence

Those who did not wish to change occupation (there were 302 in total) were then asked why they chose to remain in their villages. Table 38 indicates that the age and family ties appear to be the two major factors for them. (34.06% and 24.02% respectively). Another factor, the possession of properties such as land and a house was indentified as a significant force to retain some of the respondents (8.3%). About 10% of respondents answered that social and cultural ties to surroundings are the major reason for not migrating out. They find security and feel comfortable more with their traditional ties and environment. The lack of better employment opportunities outside the village was another reason. Their low educational and skill levels were linked to the problem, too. At this level of education, they would be able to secure jobs at most as daily labourers for harvesting palm oil or at a tea plantation and so forth.

Preferred areas to join

The most attractive area chosen for changing occupation was land development schemes such as FELDA and others which accounted for over 51% of the interested respondents (Table 39). A significant number of them indicated their interest in joining aquaculture (12.7%) and service industries such as running a sundry -goods store (12.7%). Only 1.7% indicated their preference for agricultural settlement (e.g tobacco). The percentage of favourable response for tobacco resettlement was higher in the Besut area. This was perhaps due to the influence of a successful implementation of tobacco resettlement projects in the Terengganu State. The choice of a cottage industry was found to be unpopular. A few respondents showed an interest in starting a fish processing business (1.6%). According to the participant observation, a fairly large number of fishermen, particularly in Kuala Kedah, felt that the life in the village was so difficult that they were willing to move anywhere as long as job opportunities were available. FELDA and other land development schemes have been extremely publicized by the concerned authorities. It was therefore found that the great majority of the respondents were aware of such schemes (Table 40).

KNOWFELDA KNOW FELDA KPN