Fishery Gets First Attention from Presidential Candidates

Jakarta (Antara) - The Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ) has said that the marine and fisheries sector has received a serious attention for the first time from the current presidential and vice-presidential candidates. "This is the first time in the history of the general elections in the reforms era that the two presidential candidate pairs have given serious attention to the marine and fisheries sector," IGJ Executive Director M Riza Damanik said here on Thursday. Damanik, who is also the chief patron of the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Association (KNTI), noted that the two presidential pairs seemed to have a strong wish to improve the conditions of fishermen. He remarked that the fishermen will therefore have high participation in the elections this time, and they will respond to the fisheries issues taken up by the two presidential candidates. Damanik said that observing from the vision and mission of the two candidates, Prabowo had a stronger vision in terms of the concept but lacked elaboration. Meanwhile, Joko Widodo's concept was far more operational, but it could not yet answer both the existing and emerging problems. "His concept has not yet provided direct answers to factual problems," he added. (*)