Hegemony And The Impact Of Poverty On Bajo Fishermen Society

Abstract

Poverty is a source of discussion in developing the life capacity of fishing communities. Many studies on fishermen's poverty have been carried out, but most only tend to discuss the causes of it. Still, only a few have examined more deeply the role of external parties in exacerbating fishermen's poverty. We link the hegemonic practice of the punggawa as an elite group of actors who own capital and take advantage of the poverty of the Bajo fishing community. This study aims to explain the hegemony and the impact of poverty on the Bajo fishing community in Tiworo Utara District, West Muna Regency. The study used a qualitative descriptive model approach. The research results on the hegemonic practice of the punggawa towards Bajo fishermen in the North Tiworo Sub-District gave rise to prolonged structural poverty. The poor Bajo fishermen's financial difficulties condition encourages them to owe the punggawa to fulfill their daily needs. For the punggawa, debt is a means and instrument of hegemony used to control, dominate, influence, and force Bajo fishermen to submit and obey the interests of the punggawa. Hegemony occurs because Bajo fishermen have weak human resources, low educational qualifications, and cannot compete. To pressure marketing to be centralized to the punggawa, economic hegemony is applied to cut off and close access to other fish collectors by forcing fishermen to sell all their fishery products to the punggawa with the condition that the punggawa himself sets the price. In addition, to strengthen power relations, the punggawa cooperates with political elites and makes fishermen their voice base. The hegemony of political freedom for fishermen is implemented to follow the interests of the punggawa. The practice of hegemony continues without resistance because fishermen are bound by debts of capital and gratitude from the help of punggawa.