Fishing Community in Patron-Client Relationship and Exploitation (A Case of Small-Scale Fishing Community in Makassar)

Abstract

Poverty and class exploitation are two common problems among fishing communities and an in-depth study is required to address the problems. This study aims to understand the problems and dynamics of exploitation of fishing communities in a patron-client relationship and its contribution to the subsystem production activities of the small- scale fishing communities that leads to poverty. This study reveals that class exploitation occurs in the patron-client relationship between the local investors and the fishing communities. The exploitation begins when the fishermen seek financial assistance from the local investors (collectors, punggawa, and boat owners) because of their constitutively lack of working capital. Seeking financial assistance from the local money lenders is the only solution to their problem. The relationship subsequently becomes a patron-client relationship that makes the fisherment dependent on the patrons (punggawa, collectors, and boat owners) who reap benefits from such relationship. The clients (small-scale fishermen) have to abide by a code of conduct and the patron-client relationship has restricted their production activities, which immediately leads to their worsening poverty.