High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/03bc26c0-897b-11e4-ad5b-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3NvG3zPrX
Although they inhabit the world’s largest archipelago nation and millions live off the sea, few Indonesians could ever name their fisheries minister. Until now.
Since she took office in November, Susi Pudjiastuti, a high-school dropout who built a multimillion-dollar airline from scratch, has turned the job from a little-known technocratic outpost to one of the most prominent positions in new President Joko Widodo’s cabinet.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/03bc26c0-897b-11e4-ad5b-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3NvGFp6XJ
A tattoo-clad chain-smoker, the 49-year-old has shaken up Indonesia’s fusty, patriarchal bureaucracy with her uncompromising style and has become wildly popular because of her hardline stance on illegal foreign fishing.
This is the first time in 33 years that I’ve had a boss, she says as she smokes a clove-scented cigarette and emits a throaty laugh. I asked the president if he realised that selecting me as a minister would be controversial and he said that the country needed a kind of crazy person.
Mr Widodo has vowed to restore Indonesia’s historical reputation as a maritime power, as part of a broader platform of economic reforms.
He asked Ms Pudjiastuti to lead the way and she has strutted into the limelight with relish, launching a moratorium on fishing licences and initiating a policy of destroying foreign fishing boats that encroach on Indonesia’s waters.
With the second-longest coastline of any nation, Indonesia is surrounded by rich fishing grounds, but its waters are regularly plundered by large foreign trawlers, many from neighbouring China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, many domestic fishermen struggle to make a living because of depleted fish stocks, a lack of equipment and a poor supply chain.
There’s a domino effect, says Ms Pudjiastuti. There are thousands of boats out there stealing our fish every day. Fishermen are getting poorer and poorer and starting to look for more efficient methods of fishing like making nets smaller. And that’s destroying the environment.
Mr Widodo has claimed Indonesia’s losses from illegal fishing are as high as Rp300,000bn ($24bn) a year, although academic attempts to value this unreported industry suggest a figure closer to $1bn-2bn across Southeast Asia.
Ms Pudjiastutis decision to start blowing up foreign boats caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters cemented her place as one of the country’s most popular politicians.
We will do it once in a while as a deterrent because it’s cheap, it only costs us some dynamite, she says.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/03bc26c0-897b-11e4-ad5b-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3NvGS5auA
Capitalising on her gung-ho image, she has posted a large poster outside her ministry with her sunglasses-covered face superimposed next to a burning ship and the words Where are the other boats?.
But, although Indonesian law allows for the sinking of vessels engaged in illegal fishing, analysts have warned that this strident unilateral approach risks alienating its neighbours and raising tensions in the disputed South China Sea.
To me, the destruction of vessels looks excessive even set in the context of rampant illegal fishing, says Euan Graham, a maritime security expert at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
He argues that the government is playing with fire because while smaller nations such as Vietnam and Thailand may accept such a course of action, an ever more assertive China is unlikely to stand for it.
Even the Philippines know that if they were to start burning Chinese fishing boats, they would get a response pretty quickly that they would be unable to handle, he says.
Some Indonesian fishermen worry that these actions are publicity stunts that will do little to help their day-to-day troubles.
Running a big business such as hers is different from what we do, says Saiful, an experienced fisherman from Kuala Bubon in West Aceh. We need better nets, better training and more ice factories rather than just watching other people’s boats be destroyed.
But Ms Pudjiastuti defends her approach, arguing that there is no point investing in better equipment until the government has stopped foreign boats stealing Indonesian fish.
Clearly used to ruffling feathers, she brushes off criticism about her impact on neighbourly relations and seems more concerned about revamping her ministry.
The people who work around me are not very used to the speed I act, she says, lighting up another cigarette. There’s too much blah blah blah, too much protocol, too many unnecessary meetings.
She’s learning to fly a helicopter and wants to get the helipad on her building fixed so she can avoid Jakarta’s legendary traffic jams by using one of her company’s aircraft.
I don’t like to waste time, she says.
A woman in a hurry, she has caught the mood in a young nation of 250m where many are frustrated with endemic corruption and the often self-serving elite.
Maybe my straightforward approach is what many Indonesians dream of, she says. Maybe I represent their anger and their frustrations.
The Financial Times Ltd 2015