Coastal community: Local wisdom versus bureaucratic logic (fishermen’s welfare fund in Pati district)

Decentralization has changed the paradigm of local governance, particularly about authority and income. It was started from Law 32/2004 on local government and Law 28/2009 on local tax and retribution which situate fish auction and its retribution as part of government affairs. Moreover, the local government manages whatever program using money from the retribution, which include fishermen’s welfare fund. Formerly, the local fishermen have managed fish auction for themselves, where one of the purposes is to collect welfare fund. They collect and manage fishermen’s welfare fund by operating fish auction. The question is, what happens between old and recent regulation in practice? We conduct the study in Pati district, Central Java. By interviewing, and literature reading, we find some points there. First, bureaucratic arrogance, in which the bureaucracy went into the formation of social space. Second, procedure to get the fund for fishermen is longer than before. Third, uncertainty of funds, it is where the fishermen will not know when the government acceptor reject their submission until the whole process is finished. The conclusion is, the bureaucracy destroys local wisdom.