Piracy in Malaysia Options

[Sideley]

Can someone explain the origin of malaysian piracy culture ?

This is not a provocative question. For those who deny facts, just take the glimpse on Piracy reports, you could also pefrom further search with keywords " malacca strait" and "piracy"

[Iron Malayan]

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Deadly bands of pirates robbing ships and kidnapping crews in the Malacca Strait may have been dealt a body blow by the tsunami that tore through the Indian Ocean in late December, an anti-piracy watchdog said.

Believed to hide out in coastal estuaries, mangrove swamps and bays on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, pirates have not staged a single reported attack since the Boxing Day devastation that left hundreds of thousands dead or missing.

"There are still no attacks since December 26. Following the trend before the tsunami, there should have been at least several," Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, told Reuters on Tuesday.

"One spin-off of the tsunami could be that the pirates' physical assets have been destroyed or lost. Whether all the pirates have been killed or not remains to be seen. I expect to see a pick-up in attacks once normal commercial activities return to the region," he said by telephone from Malaysia.

The Malacca Strait is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and a considerable source of concern for Asian and Western security forces, who have warned lawlessness in the Southeast Asian waterway could be taken advantage of by terrorists seeking to launch a crippling attack on global shipping.

Fears among some states bordering the waterway -- mainly Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia -- that the United States was seeking a role in policing the strait was a factor behind the launch last year of joint patrols to curb rampant piracy.

"Before the tsunami, we were still seeing attacks in the Malacca Strait, despite the joint patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore," said Choong.

"The tsunami seems to have really succeeded where the joint patrols could not."

Another reason for the lack of attacks could be the vast humanitarian operation centred on Sumatra, where many pirates are believed to have based themselves.

The effort, the biggest peace-time relief operation since World War Two, has involved thousands of foreign troops and the navies of Indonesia, the United States, Malaysia, Australia, Japan and India, among others.

"There is all the military activity around the area. When the situation returns to normal, if the pirates were not killed, we will see the attacks start up again. The money is just too good," said Choong.

MODERN ROBIN HOODS

Piracy at sea fell by a third in 2004, although violence in the Malacca Strait rose, an IMB report released this week said. The number of attacks reported worldwide dropped to 325 last year versus 445 in 2003.

But the report said Indonesia remained the world's top piracy black spot. The Malacca Strait was ranked second worst. The narrow strait between Indonesia and Malaysia, with Singapore at its southern entrance, carries nearly a quarter of world trade and almost all of the oil imports by China and Japan.

Choong said that five years ago it was believed much of the piracy in the Malacca Strait was the work of separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, but in recent times there were signs criminal gangs from Indonesia were largely to blame.

The tsunami prompted Jakarta and GAM, which has been fighting for a separate homeland since 1976 at the cost of more than 12,000 mostly civilian lives, to reopen a peace dialogue. The Indonesian military still blame the rebels for most piracy off Sumatra.

"People who are living on the coast always protect them. The pirates are like Robin Hood. They always give some of their takings to the people, so people protect them from us," Marine Colonel Buyung Lelana of the River Mouth Task Force told Reuters.

He said a lack of manpower and equipment, as well as poor maritime intelligence, made catching pirates a tough task.

"Sure, there might be no attacks now, but I believe they are consolidating their forces somewhere."

The pirates are often better equipped than the Indonesian navy and use everything from high-powered speedboats to fishing trawlers and tug boats.

Long gone are the days of cutlasses and muskets, say analysts. Bandits of the sea are now as likely as not to be armed with assault rifles and communicating by satellite phones.

But their tactics have changed little.

"They shoot at the ship and if the ship is stupid enough to stop, then they will come aboard and rob the bridge or take the crew hostage," Choong said.