NEIGHBORS III

After much prodding from Singapore and the US, our neighbors in Indonesia may be starting to get serious about the threat of maritime piracy and terrorism. Indonesia's navy chief today said:

"In the future, every thief or terrorist at sea has to be shot dead and this should be publicised by the mass media to teach a lesson," Sondakh said in a statement.

At the very least they may be getting a little serious:

Bernard said special task force units from countries surrounding the straits would take full control of the strategic waterway.

"Therefore, it is not necessary to invite troops from outside the region, including the United States," Bernard said.

Marine piracy is one of the few non-financial things I cover as a journalist - mostly because a major terrorist attack in Southeast Asian waters could devastate regional economies - and the threat of possible terrorist attacks has been rising at a quite frightening rate in the past two years.

A few years ago, pirates in Indonesian waters and the highly used Malacca Straits were usually in a single boat and attacked using knives and machetes. As of 2002, there started to be reports of pirates using multiple crafts and attacking with automatic weapons. Officials I've spoken to have suggested that there has been either the development of more professional criminal syndicates or a terrorist link.

The major concern of local authorities is that there will be the hijacking of a large chemical tanker which would be turned into a chemical bomb against a major port. This concern is amplified because most of the recent attacks in the Malacca Straits have been near the Indonesian province of Aceh, which is susceptible to the Islamofascist nihilism of Al-Qaida.

But nevermind all that. The US, which has a substantial naval presence in the region, should not help prevent this from happening because it would offend Indonesia and Malaysia.