The Malaysian Defense Minister, Najib Tun Razak, has called upon the international community to be part of a joint effort to protect the Malacca Straits, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Speaking to top defense officials at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, he noted that the incidence of piracy attacks has been reduced by 25% since last July with coordinated patrols by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
The Malaysian Defense Minister, Najib Tun Razak, has called upon the international community to be part of a joint effort to protect the Malacca Straits, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Speaking to top defense officials at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, he noted that the incidence of piracy attacks has been reduced by 25% since last July with coordinated patrols by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
However, Mr. Najip stressed that international cooperation must not impinge on “territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the littoral states”.
How can the international community contribute to maritime security in the Straits? Justin Teo spoke to Catherine Raymond, Research Fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, on this issue.
CR: Basically, what the international community can do is to contribute resources, equipment and training to the regional states to help them implement the security measures. Japan is currently doing something like this. For example, it is helping to train staff at Indonesia’s ports to help them implement the ISPS code. It has also contributing in many other ways in terms of training and resource. So the international community should look to Japan for ways in which they can contribute. I think Japan has set the precedence in a way which the international community can follow.
JT: Malaysia has dismissed the idea of having foreign naval vessels escorting their own ships in the Straits. Has national sovereignty played a stumbling block in securing the Malacca Straits?
CR: It definitely has. Last year we saw the implementation of the trilateral coordinated patrols between the navies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Although this measure was a step in the right direction, the problem was that the navies in the patrols were kept separate from each other; in another words, they only patrolled within their own territorial waters. So if for example the Singapore navy was pursuing a pirate ship and the pirate ship crossed over into Malaysian or Indonesian territorial waters, the Singapore navy would have to hand over the pursuit to one of the other navies because of issues of sovereignty. Each country does not want another country’s navy entering their waters. So if a hand over does have to occur in the pursuit of a pirate ship, it is likely that the pirate ship will get away. So what we need to see more in the region is deeper cooperation whereby the countries agree on hot pursuit into each other’s territorial waters. I think discussions are currently going on between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines about allowing pursuit into each other’s waters. But this is something that has to be worked out and sovereignty is the stumbling block to counter measures against piracy in the region.
JT: Malaysia has yet to find any credible link between terrorists and pirates who roam the Malacca Straits. But could the Straits be the new hot bed of terrorism activity in the region?
CR: Definitely a worry and not something that should be ruled out. Currently we haven’t seen any evidence of collaboration between pirates and terrorists. What we are seeing are terrorists groups carrying out attacks to generate funds for their terrorist activities. So for example, the Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines has done kidnaps for ransom attacks on vessels in Philippine waters, whereby they take a member of the crew hostage and demand a ransom for their release. So these funds which they generate could go to towards their terrorist activities. And also GAM or the Free Aceh Movement which is based in Indonesia has been accused of carrying out a lot of the recent pirate attacks on shipping in the Malacca Straits. They’ve actually denied any involvement in it and there is no evidence to prove that they are involved. This is the only link that we can see between piracy and terrorism in the region at the moment.
JT: Information on the pirates’ whereabouts could be gathered by the respective navies. Instead of protecting ships plying the Straits, could a more pro-active approach of hunting down the pirates be used?
CR: This is obviously one of the measures that would need to be implemented. But again, the issue of sovereignty comes into play. So any measures that are going to be carried out against piracy will have to be initiated by the individual states concerned. It’s very hard, for example, for Singapore, to demand investigations to be carried in Indonesia or where ever they suspect pirates to be based. So it will have to be yet again, regional or multilateral agreement in order to implement this kind of initiative.
