Contemporary Maritime Piracy in Southeast Asia: History, Causes and Remedies

1. Introduction

1. Introduction 1 1 Introduction It was a pertinent and true answer which was made to Alexander the Great by a pirate whom he had seized. When the king asked him what he meant by infesting the sea, the pirate defiantly replied: “The same as you do when you infest the whole world; but because I do it with a little ship I am called a robber, and because you do it with a great fleet, you are an emperor.” — St Augustine1 Lord I’m no thief, but a man can go wrong when he’s busted. The food that we canned last summer is gone, and I’m busted. The fields are all bare and the cotton won’t grow, Me and my family gotta pack up and go. Where well make a livin the Lord only knows, And I’m busted. — Johnny Cash2 This book explores the security problematique of contemporary maritime piracy in Southeast Asia, using historical context to highlight causative factors of piracy, and provide insight into why piracy has expanded in scope and frequency over the last fifteen years in the region. This understanding will suggest several remedial approaches in order to address the roots of contemporary maritime piracy in Southeast Asia. These approaches will emphasize the need for building national capacities of states in the region, emphasizing long-term structural development, increased operational policing capabilities, better information gathering, and international co-operation. Incidents of maritime piracy in Southeast Asia have increased dramatically during the last decade of the twentieth century and into the first years of the new millennium.3 Piracy, however, has been a persistent presence in the waters of Southeast Asia for approximately 2,000 years up to and including the last fifteen years, evolving with social and political changes in the region over the centuries. The 01 ContemMP Ch 1 3/8/07, 9:52 AM 1 2 CONTEMPORARY MARITIME PIRACY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA nature of the waters of Southeast Asia,4 the meeting place of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, an ancient as well as contemporary crossroad, makes them strategically vital, economically and militarily. Contemporarily it is the importance of these waterways that has made piracy an important security issue in Southeast Asia. Seaborne trade accounts for roughly 80 per cent of world trade,5 approximately one-quarter to one-third of which passes through the Singapore and Malacca Straits and into the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, or into the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean beyond. These waters connect the oil fields of the Middle East with the energy-hungry economies of China, Japan and the Koreas, accounting for approximately 80 per cent of Japan’s oil.6 South Korea which has no domestic oil reserves, imports approximately 2.1 million barrels daily, and China imports approximately 5.56 million barrels daily, much of which comes through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.7 Moreover, current estimates suggest 150 to 500 ships (large freighters and tankers, not including local traffic) pass through the Strait of Malacca daily,8 which is upwards of 50,000 ships annually. These waterways are also the shortest route between the Pacific and Indian Ocean theatres of operation for regional and extra-regional navies, such as the United States, Russia, India, China, and Japan. Any threat to the security of these vital sea lanes will be considered seriously. Beyond posing a direct threat to human life and monetary cost, one of the biggest worries is that a pirate attack against an oil tanker, or other vessel carrying hazardous materials, may cause an accident that even if unintentional could result in an environmental catastrophe, potentially closing off shipping (ironically reducing the number of targets for pirates), and destroying fisheries that provide a livelihood for thousands if not millions of maritime-oriented peoples in the region.9 Additionally, as Stanley Weeks notes “Piracy raises insurance rates, restricts free trade, increases tensions between the affected littoral states, their neighbours and the countries whose flagged ships are attacked or hijacked.”10 Additionally, there is the potential economic fall out stemming from damage done to regional states’ reputations, as shipping companies may choose alternative ports and routes to avoid the threat of piracy. Adding to the seriousness of these threats is the apparent involvement of organized crime, allegations of state involvement, or at least complicity, in piracy and the conflation of piracy and terrorism.11 Even though piracy has gained some measure of attention through these...