Recent months have seen the resurgence of
piracy in the region, leading one United Nations agency to call Southeast Asia
a “piracy hotspot”.
In
fact, there were about eight armed piracy-related attacks at the start of 2014
in the Strait of Malacca, according to a report by the Nautilus Institute for
Security and Sustainability.
Piracy
in Southeast Asia is not a new phenomenon. From the 14th to 19th centuries,
pirates plundered trading ships loaded with goods from the lucrative spice
trade, seeking to boost their own coffers as well as signal their resistance to
European colonialists.
Up
until 2004, over a third of all pirate attacks in the world took place in
Southeast Asian waters. However, strong government and military intervention on
land and sea helped to stave off the problem, at least on the surface.
Countries like Singapore and Malaysia collectively coordinated sea patrols,
increased the number of surveyor airplanes, and collected information on
pirates. This transnational effort increased the costs of continuing operations
for pirates and halted their involvement in the region.
At the
same time, in the Indonesian region of Aceh, the implementation of a peace
accord helped remedy conflict between the Indonesian military and a local
Islamic separatist group, the Free Aceh Movement. The group was for many years,
reportedly a key source of pirates who plundered the Strait of Malacca. In
addition, more interdependent regional mechanisms for maritime security were
set up to counter piracy, such as the Regional Cooperation Agreement on
Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia and the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Regional Forum on Maritime Security.
Unfortunately,
these earlier fixes have crumbled while deep-rooted factors remain. The
Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability attributes piracy in
Southeast Asia to a multitude of reasons, including “over-fishing, lax maritime
regulations, the existence of organised crime syndicates, the presence of
radical politically motivated groups in the region, and widespread poverty”.
To
complicate matters, the rise in trade in Southeast Asian waters adds further
incentive for pirates seeking bounties. Overall trade in Asean increased by
16.8 per cent to US$2.1 trillion (S$2.6 trillion) in 2011 from 2010. In
particular, Asean exports of mineral fuels and oils as well as their distilled
products were worth US$228 billion in 2011. These figures only serve to tempt
the return of piracy in Southeast Asia, luring it back to the waters it once
called home.
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