Southeast Asia winning Malacca Straits battle for now, says watchdog
Channel NewsAsia 20 Nov 08;
JAKARTA : Southeast Asia is winning the battle against piracy in the Malacca Straits but any reduction in vigilance could see a sudden return of high-seas banditry in the vital trade lane, a watchdog said Thursday.
The strategic shipping route between Indonesia's Sumatra island and the Southeast Asian peninsula of Malaysia and Singapore was deemed the most dangerous waterway in the world by Lloyds of London only three years ago.
But attacks are dramatically down thanks to better cooperation among the littoral states which surround the narrow waterway, and experts believe a major hijacking like the incident off Somalia this week is now unlikely here.
In the year to September there have been only two pirate attacks in the straits, according to the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB), compared to 38 in 2004 and a peak of 75 in 2000.
"If pirates here were to try a copy-cat attack like in Somalia, it won't be easy for them because the governments in this region won't hesitate to take action," IMB Piracy Reporting Centre chief Noel Choong said.
But he said pirates operating out of bases in Sumatra and outlying islands would strike again as soon as the littoral states relaxed their coordinated "aggressive patrols."
"What we see is that the pirates aren't being detained, they're just lying low because of the aggressive patrols... We maintain our piracy warning for the Malacca Straits despite the stability of the region."
The Malacca sea-lane carries about 40 percent of the world's trade, including a major part of the energy imports of China and Japan.
But unlike the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden off the coast of lawless Somalia, the littoral states have relatively well-organised maritime police forces and navies with backing from allies like the United States.
US aid for Indonesia's anti-piracy efforts includes 15 high-speed response boats, some of which are based at Batam opposite Singapore at the most vulnerable choke-point in the straits.
Washington is also funding a tactical communications centre in Jakarta and a major radar system along the north Sumatran coast to better monitor suspect vessels.
Both pirate attacks this year -- one on February 1 off the Indonesian town Medan and another on May 10 off the northern coast of Sumatra -- involved pirates trying but failing to board huge tankers.
In the May attack, pirates in military camouflage gear used a bamboo pole attached to a hook to try to gain access to the ship while it was under way. They fled in a speedboat after the ship's captain raised the alarm.
There have been numerous other incidents in the straits in 2008 but they were considered too close to ports and anchorages to fit the definition of piracy, according to the IMB.
"Our Straits of Malacca is under good surveillance," said Malaysian defence ministry spokeswoman Fadzlette Merican.
"Whatever irregularities we see, we will report. We feel this is why piracy cases have reduced significantly... We are always on the alert."
Maritime Institue of Malaysia security analyst Ramli Nik said the clear lesson to be learnt from the effort to secure the Malacca Straits is the importance of the "comprehensive partnership" between Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
"This is key in combating piracy," he said.
But it is a lesson that may not apply to Somalia, which has no effective government to cooperate with -- and a much larger expanse of water for international vessels to patrol.
"In Somalia there is no proper government and there is no joint co-operation between the states surrounding the Gulf of Aden. These countries are also incapable of securing the waters due to the lack of resources," he said.
Associate Professor Ralf Emmers, a specialist in maritime security at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said piracy was an economic crime and few places on earth were as desperately poor as Somalia.
"It's important to remember that piracy is related to socioeconomics... and this partly explains why you see such an increase off the coast of Somalia now," he said.
- AFP/vm
Malaysia, Indonesia urged to open up waters
Jessinta Tan, Today Online 21 Nov 08;
with additional reporting by AFP
MALAYSIA and Indonesia “lack the will” to further open up their waters for Singapore to help patrol their sea routes, despite the two countries’ lack of resources to do so, observed a maritime expert.
“Singapore can help them to do the job of patrolling if they open up their waters,” said Singapore’s LTC Joshua Ho, a senior fellow at S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore — the three littoral countries — have conducted coordinated patrols in the Strait of Malacca. Singapore also contributes boats and provides maritime training to the two countries.
But Mohd Nizam Basiron, a research fellow at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia, said it is a challenge to balance one’s interests with those of the international community, amid increasing competition over the control of sea lines of communication, and threats to maritime security.
“Malaysia’s maritime security environment is a complex and convoluted mix of national and bilateral issues layered against the interests of the world’s powers,” he said, referring to the United States, China and India.
Mr Mohd Nizam said Malaysia faces a dilemma in reconciling these interests.
Meanwhile, Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said Southeast Asia is winning the battle against piracy in the Strait of Malacca, but any reduction in vigilance could see a sudden return of high-seas banditry in the vital trade lane.
Attacks are dramatically down, thanks to better cooperation among the littoral states.
“If pirates here were to try a copy-cat attack like in Somalia, it won’t be easy for them because the governments in this region won’t hesitate to take action,” IMB Piracy Reporting Centre chief Noel Choong said.
But pirates operating out of bases in Sumatra and outlying islands would strike again as soon as the littoral states relaxed their coordinated “aggressive patrols”.
“What we see is that the pirates aren’t being detained, they’re just lying low because of the aggressive patrols. We maintain our piracy warning for the Malacca Strait despite the stability of the region.”
On maritime terrorism, LTC Ho said groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf have the intention and capability to launch attacks at sea, although the likelihood of that happening is low at present.
Hijackings at sea: How Southeast Asia overcame scourge
Michael Richardson, Straits Times 21 Nov 08;
THE seizure this week by Somalian pirates of a giant Saudi-owned tanker in the Indian Ocean has shocked the world's merchant shipping industry and navies. The 318,000-ton Sirius Star, fully laden with oil, is the biggest tanker ever to be hijacked at sea.
Could a similar seizure happen in South-east Asian waters, where pirates have also been active in recent years? Mr Noel Choong, head of the shipping industry's Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur, believes it will be 'very difficult to copycat the Somalia situation in Asia'. Asian governments, he points out, are committed to suppressing both piracy and terrorism and have more resources to do so than Somalia, a failed state that has not had an effective government since 1991. The regional piracy-monitoring agency in Singapore says maritime attacks in Asia in the first nine months of this year dropped 11 per cent compared to last year, and 32 per cent from 2006. Most of the attacks nowadays are small-scale robberies against small vessels.
Yet, three years ago in the Malacca and Singapore straits, something akin to the attack on the Sirius Star was attempted. On April 6, 2005, a 150,000-ton Japanese tanker reported an attempted boarding by suspected pirates as the vessel neared Singapore.
In the midst of a heavy rainstorm and poor visibility, the captain of the Yohteisan sent out a radio message that he had been surrounded by seven small craft and that people from them had tried to board the tanker. They were prevented from doing so only when the captain increased speed.
Singapore's Ministry of Defence (Mindef) was so concerned about the incident that it issued a statement describing the sequence of events. As soon as the Yohteisan's distress call was received, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore alerted the Navy and Police Coast Guard and broadcast an anti-piracy warning to vessels in the region. The attempted boarding, however, occurred in Indonesian territory. The east-bound lane of the traffic separation scheme to keep ships from colliding in the narrow Singapore Strait is in Indonesian, not Singapore, waters. All the Singapore Navy could do was to inform the Indonesian Navy, which then sent raider boats to the scene to investigate. A Singapore naval ship was also deployed on the Singapore side of the channel to render assistance if required.
A Mindef statement said: 'These incidents highlight the need to find more ways by which enforcement agencies can cooperate to take action to enhance the security of regional waters, while respecting the sovereignty of the littoral states.'
Singapore's concern was well-founded. 2005 was the year when the insurer Lloyds of London listed the busy Malacca and Singapore straits - the shortest way by sea between the Indian and Pacific oceans - as a danger spot for piracy, prompting some insurers to raise premiums for ships using the channel. Indonesia was regarded as the main problem area.
In 2004, the shipping industry reported 93 attacks on ships in Indonesian waters, more than a quarter of the global tally. Another 37 attacks took place in the Malacca and Singapore straits. As in Somalia, the pirates were becoming bolder and better armed. Automatic assault rifles were being used more frequently and even some rocket-propelled grenades were reportedly brandished. The hijacking of vessels was on the rise, and so was the kidnapping of their officers and crew for ransom.
Singapore Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar said at the time that hijacking vessels for their valuable cargo and taking crew for ransom 'suggest that organised elements are creeping into what was previously the domain of opportunistic thuggery. Piracy has become a high-tech international enterprise'.
How did South-east Asia turn this dire situation around? The key was the arrest and punishment of pirates and organisers by Indonesia and Malaysia, and the settlement of the separatist conflict in Aceh. Maritime-related aid to Indonesia, especially from the United States, Japan and China, also helped. Singapore provided real-time surveillance information to Indonesia on shipping traffic. And both countries combined with Malaysia to intensify sea and air patrolling of the straits.
Still, the seizure of the Sirius Star shows that it is relatively easy for armed raiders to take control of even the biggest merchant ships. The risk is that terrorists may try to emulate the pirates, but use giant ships with flammable or polluting cargoes as political weapons, instead of as bargaining chips for ransom, as the Somalian pirates do.
The writer is an energy and security specialist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
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