On Malacca piracy

Interesting report here:

What challenges do the authorities face in tackling piracy?

There are two key factors. One is the jurisdiction. Many states in the region are concerned about having armed personnel onboard vessels. If you put armed guards on ships, something terrible is going to happen, there will be mistakes made or something else, and then what happens? What is the jurisdiction? What are the rights that the individual would have and what about the legal protection? That’s one area. The second is of a more practical nature. The shipping that is targeted is mostly local and regional. Most of these shippers would not have the ability to put guards on their vessels, and there are so many vessels transiting this Straits and in reality, with the amount of traffic to the amount of piracy incidents, it is very rare, so the cost of trying to protect even a substantial portion of the shipping would be astronomical and impractical.