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Coastal welfare key to suppressing threats in Southeast Asia
Cases of piracy, armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom in Southeast Asian seas have been declining rapidly thanks to the region’s economic improvement and maritime enforcement initiatives
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span>Cases of piracy, armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom in Southeast Asian seas have been declining rapidly thanks to the region’s economic improvement and maritime enforcement initiatives. But the progress might suffer another setback with the unthorough coastal welfare in the Sulu and Celebes seas, a recent study has said.
Most parts of the Sulu and Celebes region — covering waters along Indonesia’s Sulawesi and Kalimantan, Malaysia’s Sabah and Borneo, and the Philippines’ Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao — have rapidly developed their coastal welfare in recent years, which has contributed to suppressing security threats in the waters.
However, the progress could be hampered by poverty in Mindanao — home to a minority Muslim population in the predominantly Roman Catholic country — which is currently left behind with legacies of political exclusion, religious radicalism and endemic poverty, according to a report titled “Stable Seas: Sulu and Celebes Seas” issued on Tuesday by United States-based resilient-society organization One Earth Future (OEF).
The report was composed based on desk research, field research and interviews with authorities from the three countries, as well as Singapore, Thailand and Australia.
It said that Mindanao, located at the center of the Sulu and Celebes region, “faces uniquely low levels of economic development” as measured by per capita gross regional domestic product (PCGRDP).
Citing Philippine Statistics Authority data, the report said that Mindanao’s economic development in 2017 was 30,557 pesos (US$580), equal to one-fifteenth of that in metro Manila at $8,840, and one-fifth of that in nearby Davao City at $2,680.
“This region of the Philippines ranks last in economic development, falling more than 40 percent below the country’s second-poorest region of Bicol at 52,927 pesos or $1,000,” it said. “Because [Mindanao] is at the geographic center of the Sulu and Celebes region, failure to improve coastal welfare will suppress growth in other parts of the region.”
East Sabah was deemed an important success story, where Malaysia “has proactively responded to security threats with investments in coastal economy and security”, including through the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) — which was established in 2013 as a response to kidnappings for ransom.
As a result, Sabah received 17.8 million tourists in 2017, increasing nearly 8 percent from the previous year. Tourism now contributes over 10 percent of Sabah’s economy, according to the report.
Thanks to ESSCOM, there had been no kidnapping-for-ransom incidents for nearly two years in Sabah waters until a September 2018 incident in which two Indonesian fishermen were kidnapped off the coast of Semporna, followed by another incident involving two Indonesians and a Malaysian in December, the report said.
Between January 2014 and the end of January 2019, there were 26 kidnappings in Sulu and Celebes involving 85 crew members, the report said.
Across Southeast Asian waters, both piracy and armed robbery sharply declined between 2014 and 2018, according to data from OEF’s Oceans Beyond Piracy program, which reported 99 attacks in 2017, declining from 129 in 2016 and 200 in both 2014 and 2015.
The report also showed that the reduction of armed robbery and piracy had particularly occurred in the neighboring Strait of Malacca and Singapore — the world’s busiest shipping hub.
Yet, the Southeast Asian region still has unfinished business in suppressing security threats, mostly abductions for ransom in Sulu and Celebes waters, particularly after the 2018 Sabah incidents — which were described by the report as representing “a short reprieve rather than a true turning point”.
Apart from individual efforts such as Malaysia’s ESSCOM, there has also been multilateral coordination in the form of the Trilateral Cooperative Agreement — a maritime cooperation between Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines — which has been helping to tackle crime in the Sulu and Celebes seas, the report said.
“Indonesia, in particular, has taken on global leadership responsibilities by hosting events like the 2018 Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo and the 2018 Our Ocean conference,” the report said.
Asyura Salleh, One Earth Future’s project manager, said that to further increase regional cooperation and “development of the blue economy in the region to enhance job availabilities and creation of economic opportunities” it was important to improve maritime security in the region.
