A minister announced last month that Indonesia does not have the funds to build the National Fish Bank or a new Ambon port, two infrastructure projects promised by the national government in the Maluku province.
Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, Indonesia's fisheries minister, announced in April that the National Fish Bank in Maluku province, as well as a new port in Ambon, the provincial capital, would not be funded in the 2022 national budget. When President Joko Widodo announced the two national infrastructure projects during a visit to the eastern Indonesian province in March 2021, they created quite a stir.
The National Fish Bank would have been an integrated fisheries center or port with international and domestic container terminals, a liquefied natural gas terminal, a power plant with a kilometer-long pier, as well as fish auction and processing buildings.
The central government has promised and then abandoned the National Fish Bank project for the second time in ten years. The project was first proposed during the administration of Widodo's predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The outcry from the province two time zones away from the nation's capital was shrill this time.
"It is unfair to say there is no money," Saadiah Uluputty, a Maluku member of parliament, said in a video sent to Mongabay. "There can't be an explanation. This [project] is connected to the president's promises made during his visit to Maluku. Declaring suddenly that there is no money is a public lie."
Abdullah Tuasikal, another Maluku MP, expressed dissatisfaction with Jakarta's announcement that the National Fish Bank would be replaced by a quota and size-based catch fishery policy in Maluku's waters.
"How can a quota be purchased by a small-scale fisherman with no capital?" Ruslan Tawari, a professor of fisheries at Pattimura University in Ambon, agreed.
Indonesia's 11 fisheries management areas would be subdivided into four areas with set quotas or total tonnage of fish that could be caught by small-scale fishers, commercial fishers, and hobby fishers under the quota-based program launched in February. The fisheries ministry's fish resources assessment commission, known as Komnas Kajiskan, determines quotas every two years. According to Ruslan of Pattimura University, "the quota system, unlike the National Fish Bank project, will not develop Maluku as a fisheries hub."
Ruslan also stated that politicians chose between the two programs. "The National Fish Bank debate should not be limited to politicians alone, but should include civilians as well." "All humans can think, but we are bad at working together," he said.
Amrullah Usemahu, general secretary of the Society of Indonesian Fishers (MPN), a non-governmental organization, and regional head of the Indonesian Fisheries Students Association (HIMAPIKANI), also spoke out on the matter.
"The project's progress has been up and down under the leadership of four fishery ministers," Amrullah said, referring to the National Fish Bank being proposed as a national strategic program for the first time in 2010. He went on to say that the project would have benefited eastern Indonesia by "reviving existing fishing ports throughout the Maluku region, [improving] logistics, routes, and the development of fishery supply chains exported directly from Maluku."
The central government originally intended Ambon as a location for port and general fishing industry infrastructure development. The projects were canceled in mid-March after an initial site feasibility study revealed that the chosen site in Waai still had abandoned mines from World War II in its waters, according to the coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment. An active underwater volcano was also discovered during the feasibility study.
According to Amrullah, there is no reason why the National Fish Bank and promised updated port cannot take the form of a port expansion. "In fact, the central government could develop [the existing] Ambon or Tual ports or upgrade Dobo port," he said. He added that the eastern Indonesian regions of Maluku, Papua, and East Nusa Tenggara lacked type A ports, which house fleets that fish right up to the edge of Indonesia's exclusive economic zone. According to other news reports, the existing urban development around these older ports would limit the size of any potential expansion.
According to Amrullah, the national infrastructure project stalled when the port expansion was linked to the National Fish Bank fishery development area. "The infrastructure initiative should prioritize fishery development," he said. "We can't talk about fishery exports [and thus ports] if there aren't any fish."
