Yogyakarta- Indonesia is a country having the biggest coast and sea in the world. Yet, coastal society mostly still live in poverty. Therefore, there should be an effort to increase coastal society empowerment. One way is through law and governmental regulation that consider cultures and values practiced by society.
That was stated by the Dean of Law Faculty of Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta (UMY), Dr. Mukti Fajar ND, at UMY integrated campus on Monday (12/9), referring to his paper titled ‘Community Development Policy Toward Poverty Reduction in Indonesia ; Case Study of Coastal Communities in the Southern Coast of Java Island’ that will be presented in 1st Organisational Governance Conference on Thursday-Friday (15-16/9) at De Montfort University, Leicester, England.
The paper is based on the research done by Mukti and his two other friends, Ahdiana SH, M.Hum and Drs. Wihandaru, M.Si. It was done at some coasts in Yogyakarta province (DIY).
Mukti elaborates that actually government has done some policies to reduce poverty for coastal society. One of them is cooperating with a bank. "It is implemented by giving soft loan or setting up micro business in fishery.
However, the research finds some problems. "One of the problems is, for example, the gap between formal approach of governmental policy and a bank with cultural aspects practiced by coastal society. Besides the society still depends on natural condition of sea as their basic economic activity," said he.
As the head of Research, Development, and Public Service Institute (LP3M-UMY), he also says that the problem in terms of governmental policies and laws and regulations should be able to direct development to reach national well-being.
In determining the regulation, according to Mukti, there should be basic considerations, for example, paying attention to cultures and values practiced by society. "For instance, government fund that is distributed through banking is not optimal. Because coastal society depends on sea, their income cannot be predicted. When the weather is good, their income increases. In one month, it is impossible for them to get fixed income, so they will find difficulty to pay instalment through banking," he said.
According to Mukti, it will be different if the fund is distributed to cooperative. "If it is done through cooperative, the success level actually increases. The existence of cooperative proves to be able to increase the income of coastal society," said he.
Mukti hopes that law and governmental regulation that aim to increase the well-being of coastal society can be applied based on cultures as weel as values practiced by the society. (www.umy.ac.id)
(trans by hamzah - uhamka)