While piracy rages unabated in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, attacks on the other side of the Indian Ocean in the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea have steadily dwindled, largely because Southeast Asian nations have banded together to fight that scourge of the sea.
During the first quarter of 2009, attacks in Southeast Asian waters were down to nine, compared with 41 during the same period of 2004, according to the International Maritime Bureau. The IMB, with headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, said pirates attacked 63 ships off Somalia or in the Gulf of Aden in this period.
The director of the IMB, Pottengal Mukundan, said the surge of piracy off Somalia was worrisome 'principally because attacks have taken place many hundreds of miles off the country's coastline. The problem of Somali piracy has now spilled over to neighbouring countries, threatening trade routes into their ports.'
In contrast, only one incident was reported during this quarter in the Malacca Strait. A Singaporean tug towing a barge was boarded by 12 pirates with rifles who stole navigation equipment and some money, before fleeing with the tug's master and first officer as hostages. The pair were freed after the owner paid an unspecified ransom.
The IMB, in its quarterly report, said: 'The littoral states should be complimented for their continued efforts in maintaining and securing the safety of this strategic trade route.' The differences between Southeast Asia and Somalia are striking. Governments in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam are operative and can crack down on pirates; Somalia is a lawless, failed state. Nations around the South China Sea have begun to overcome issues of sovereignty to start working together.
Geography favours Southeast Asia as the South China Sea is a big lake and the straits in and out are easier to control than the wide Indian Ocean. Joint 'eyes in the sky' patrols, co-ordinated naval patrols, intelligence sharing, and command centres that communicate with each other, have helped. So has getting agencies within a government to work together: Indonesia, for example, has 13 agencies involved in maritime security.
