For fisherman Ismail Hussin, 53, his working day starts as employees are leaving their offices in late afternoon.
Looking back on his life, he said the livelihood of the fishing community in Kampung Nail had improved over the years with the government’s assistance.
“Life was difficult before as we had to endure hardship. But now, some houses owned by fishermen are beautiful and you can see cars parked in the compound,” he told Bernama.
He said fishermen in Kuala Besut were now enjoying a better standard of living – thanks to various initiatives taken by the government to ease their burden.
For Ismail, the RM3,000 diesel subsidy he was entitled to was the most meaningful help as it enabled him to go out to the sea everyday followed by fishing gears and house repair assistance.
“Fishermen are also getting a monthly cost of living allowance of RM200, which is deposited in our bank account in the middle of the month, apart from the RM500 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) and the RM100 school aid for each school going children.
“Besides the school aid, my son, Nor Aiman, who is in Year Six at Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Kampung Nail village, also gets a laptop from the government and he has grown accustomed with the Internet,” he said.
Another fisherman, Azmi Daud, 41, said the Terengganu government had been dishing out a yearly hari raya aid of RM300 to poor families and RM200 to unmarried individuals.
However, he hoped the government would speed up the process of issuing compound to fishermen for encroaching restricted fishing areas as the delay could force them out of work.
“At times, the process takes one month, causing our fishing licence to be withdrawn and we cannot go out to the sea. We had to look for other ways to eke a living or dig into our savings to pay for our expenses,” he added.
For Mat Arifin Mohamad Nor, 47, and his wife, Zahani Yunus, 45, they were grateful to the government for accommodating them at the Kampung Pengkalan Atap Public Housing for free since six years ago.
Mat Arifin, who is a driver with a government agency, said he was given a three-room house when he was doing an odd job and rented a house in Taman Seri Seratus for RM80 a month.
“At times, we had to tighten our belts to pay the rental,” he said, most of the occupants of the public housing were fishermen.
“We hope the government will build an embankment to protect the public housing from high waves, instead of transferring us to flats in Kampung Tok Sabuh. Give the flats to those who are still homeless,” he added.
Kuala Besut comes into the spotlight due to the July 24 by-election following the death of assemblyman Dr A. Rahman Mokhtar of the Barisan Nasional (BN) of lung cancer on June 26.
The BN has announced Tengku Zaihan Che Ku Abd Rahman, 37, a civil engineer with the Drainage and Irrigation Department who hails from Kuala Besut, as its candidate while PAS has named Endot alias Azlan Yusof, 48, a contractor, as its candidate.
2013 Bernama