Oceans of Crime: Maritime Piracy and Transnational Security in Southeast Asia and Bangladesh

7. State Responses to Piracy

State Responses to Piracy 267 7 STATE RESPONSES TO PIRACY Although our defence capability to deal with any thr eat is adequate at the moment, we will continue to enhance it in accordance with the country’s financial capacity. Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak1 INTRODUCTION In an interview with the author, Daniel Tan, the executive director of the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), explained that mer chant vessels simply exist to transport goods from point A to point B. Shipowners and operators, therefore, provide a service that both assists the global economy and is important to states. Consequently , Tan believes that it is the responsibility of the states wher e pirate attacks occur , rather than the shipowners, to provide security for merchant vessels.2 As a representative of the interests of shipowners, Tan clearly wants to place the r esponsibility for security and the financial costs that such measur es incur into the hands of states and their law enfor cement agencies. While it r emains contested who is responsible for providing security in the maritime spher e, states and law enforcement agencies are, overall, the primary providers of security for ships in ports and waters under their jurisdiction. This chapter discusses state responses to piracy in Southeast Asia and Bangladesh. It seeks to explore how states, government policies, and the economic and political 07 Oceans_Crime 12/14/10, 2:54 PM 267 268 Oceans of Crime situation within countries and r egions shape piracy and af fect national, regional and international security. Particular attention is paid to how the emergence of national maritime bor ders, the establishment and development of those government agencies r esponsible for addr essing piracy, and security cooperation between countries influence the occurr ence of piracy. STATES, BORDERS, AND MILITARIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND BANGLADESH Pre-1989 Bangladesh and most Southeast Asian countries became independent nations within the thr ee decades following W orld War II. The way in which these independent states emer ged, the economic development of these countries, and the establishment and funding of their military for ces and law enforcement agencies, have had a major impact on contemporary maritime piracy. This section of the chapter pr ovides a brief overview of these developments, focusing solely on issues that ar e of r elevance to piracy in the region today. States and Boundaries Bangladesh and most Southeast Asian states emerged after World War II out of colonies established first by Eur opean powers and later also the United States. Prior to the arrival of Europeans in Southeast Asia, political power was often based on contr ol over people, rather than territory, and political entities were consequently loosely defined spher es of influence rather than clearly delineated geographical areas. While some of the new post-colonial states superficially r esemble earlier indigenous political entities, the boundaries of today’s states wer e generally determined by colonial powers, based lar gely around their own inter ests and/or geographical features.3 As Ooi Giok Ling points out: A majority of the modern nation states in Southeast Asia have been carved out of former colonies of Western industrial powers, such that the boundaries of these states have greater meaning in terms of the resources and territory that the colonial powers secur ed than in terms of the dif ferent ethnic groups and identities within each state. 4 07 Oceans_Crime 12/14/10, 2:54 PM 268 State Responses to Piracy 269 Little attention was, ther efore, paid to indigenous political and cultural entities or their trade patterns. Furthermor e, the borders drawn by the colonial powers were not always precise, as Lee Yong Leng states: Some [borders] were imprecise, being badly delimited or demar cated: some cut through ethnic homogeneity; and others used vague or changing physiographic features. … As a result, boundary disputes have arisen between states today. Boundaries have, in fact, become an important issue in the politics of Southeast Asia.5 These boundary disputes include rivalries over maritime borders. During colonial times, maritime bor ders were often not decided upon by demarcating actual boundaries, but were determined by the ownership of islands. After independence, numer ous agreements were reached to establish clearer maritime boundaries in Southeast Asia.6 However, as discussed in Chapter 3, contr ol and ownership of the sea changed fundamentally with the adoption of UNCLOS and its widely accepted guidelines on the nature of, and...