CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- For years now piracy in the Malacca Strait has been one of the top problems facing the Asian region. A recent Japan Times editorial very succinctly dealt with the potential dangers that it presents, especially with regard to Japan. My purpose here is to consider possible ways to minimize the threat.
While visiting the famous Hyundai Shipyards in Ulsan, South Korea, I was surrounded by dozens of people in the shipping industry: shipowners, shipbuilders, merchant-marine financiers, insurers, mariners and others.
I asked one seasoned tanker skipper how he and his crews felt when passing through the Malacca Strait. He answered by telling me a long story of how once while asleep in his cabin he was awakened by a menacing pirate who was holding a sharp knife to his neck! In the same incident, other members of his crew were treated equally brutally.