International police action against piracy

The United States Coast Guard has for many years now taken the lead in international police action against many forms of international maritime criminality: piracy, arms smuggling and drug trafficking. The US Navy, the US Marine Corps and the US Coast Guard all have had historical roles in combating piracy, staring from the operations against the Barbary pirates in the 19th century. It appears that this approach is being pushed by Indonesia in its environs, if one were to believe the Chanda report.

Chanda surmises that the rash of pirate attacks is promoting a quiet shift in attitudes to regional security. Responding to a proposal from Tokyo, states Chanda, "Asian governments are for the first time since World War II considering a Japanese security role in the region. If they agree, armed Japanese coastguard vessels are likely to join ships of other nations in safeguarding some of the world's most heavily used commercial sea lanes."

"The hijacking off Indonesia of the Alondra Rainbow ended two weeks later when the pirates and their stolen ship were captured in a shoot-out with an Indian navy corvette. The Alondra Rainbow's crew of two Japanese officers and 15 Filipino crew, put adrift on a raft for ten days in the Adaman Sea with little water or food, were rescued by Thai fishermen.

In 1999, piracy incidents, actual or attempted as reported in Indonesian waters and ports almost doubled to 113 incidents from 60 in 1998. That inclined the International Maritime Bureau, an agency of the London-based International Chamber of Commerce to consider Indonesia "by far the most piracy nation in the world." Other pirates blamed for increased incidents are nowhere near as high as in Indonesia. In Asia as a whole, the maritime bureau reported that acts of piracy swelled by more than 70 percent to 211 in 1999. Most where hit-and-run attacks; in only a handful of cases were ships actually hijacked.

For Japan, half of whose crude-oil supply from the Middle East passes through these waters, the question of how Tokyo can even offer to police foreign sea-lanes is a vexing one. Bitter memories remain in the region of Japan's wartime occupation, and Japan's own people would resist a distant military role, especially in East Asia.

But Tokyo may have found the right formula, judging by the favorable reaction to the late Japanese Premier Keizo Obuchi's proposal that Japanese ships join Asian neighbors in joint patrols against pirates in the Malacca Strait, a major shipping lane that separates Peninsular Malaysia from Indonesia.

By focusing on the collaborative nature of such an effort, and proposing that the Japanese ships come from Japan's less-conspicuous, civilian-controlled coastguard, rather than its obviously military navy, Tokyo appears to have hit upon a creative solution. If its ideas is accepted by the proposed partners -- China, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore -- it would open the way for Japan to play a security role in the region that befits its economic might. It could even alter the regional power-balance now dominated by China and the United States. Malaysia has welcomed the idea. "We have always been ready to cooperate with other countries to curb piracy and other crimes which have a cross-border effect," foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar says. Malaysia, he adds, would leave it to Japan to organize the proposed patrols with each country. J.N. Mak of the Maritime Institute of Malaysia says of Japan: "Fighting piracy is a fairly good way to get its security role if the region accepted."

The plan to leave the job of patrolling to the Coast Guard also skirts possible domestic opposition in Japan. While the end of the Cold War and the national debate over Japan's passive role during the Gulf war against Iraq have softened public opposition, Article 9 of Japan's postwar peace constitution forbids any overseas military role. Not being a military organization, Japan's Maritime Safety agency , as the coastguard is called, can operate abroad without breaching the constitution.

Around the region, lingering memories of Imperial Japanese colonial and wartime occupation in the first half of the century are being overshadowed by piracy's threat to trade, the growing physical danger of plying Southeast Asian waters and the inevitable rise in the cost of insurance which has agitated shipowners. Japanese Premier Obuchi reportedly got favorable responses on the issue from ASEAN leaders at a Manila summit last November.

According to a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Obuchi proposed a three-pronged attack on piracy in the sea lanes around Indonesia: establishing a regional "coastguard body," strengthening support for shipping companies, and improving regional coordination to respond to attacks.

The spokesman said no details have been decided, but Japan has invited Asian officials to discuss the plan in Tokyo in late April. Of course, historical distrust of the Japanese could yet derail the project. Tokyo officials say they're proceeding cautiously, and note that joint patrols are just one of the issues to be discussed in April. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ryuichiro Yamazaki says: "We are making careful preparations. We don't want to make a flying start because we want various countries to be happy in participating."

Sankei Shimbun, the newspaper that disclosed the Japanese plan, reported that using the Japanese coastguard was suggested to Premier Obuchi by Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. But neither side will confirm where the proposal originated. Yamazaki says that at the Manila meeting, President Wahid "did actually show interest in the joint patrol idea." But the director-general for political affairs at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Nugroho Wisnumurti, who sat in on the Manila meeting, denies the subject was discussed.

Indonesian officials concede, however, that they can't be sure it wasn't raised elsewhere, given the fact that during his foreign travels Wahid often meets foreign leaders without note-takers present. A senior ASEAN diplomat says it's understandable that the Japanese would like to present the proposal as coming from others, though Wahid, who is "way ahead of his bureaucracy, is likely to support the idea." Indonesia's precarious financial and security situation calls for a pragmatic approach. Not only does Indonesia need Japan's financial support but also joint policing of waters north of the archipelago might deter gunrunners supporting the separatist movement in Aceh province.

Singapore has also been concerned about the rise in piracy. In a recent meeting with Obuchi, Singapore Premier Goh Chok Tong explained how in his country's experience a joint patrol with Indonesia had helped reduce piracy in the Malacca Strait. Singapore, along with China, Vietnamgo might deter gun-runners supporting the separatist movement in Aceh province" says Chanda. Singapore, concerned about the rise in piracy in the area, is obviously interested. In a recent meeting with Obuchi, Singapore Premier Goh Chok Tong reportedly explained how in his country's experience a joint patrol with Indonesia had helped reduce piracy in the Malacca Strait. -- Maritime Review