http://www.japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=351
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GH04Ae01.html

"Over the past 25 years piracy and armed robbery against vessels have become a growing concern for the shipping industry and the international community. Since 1984, when the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations started to collect information about acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels, close to 4,000 such acts have been reported to the organization. The problem, moreover, has grown worse since the turn of the millenium."

Red herring or not, I don't know. But from reading those stories, it seems to me like Singapore (one of South Asia's most prosperous nations) is smack dab in the middle of what's becoming the Barbary Coast of the 21st Century.

Of course, the way the fledgeling U.S. dealt with the Barbary Pirates in the 18th Century was to pay tributes for the promise of leaving American cargo ships alone, while in the opening of the 19th Century the U.S. dealt with them by threatening Naval action. Tributes largely failed, but an armed Naval presence worked surprisingly well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates

What the nations using the international waters of the Straight of Malacca need to realize is this: On the high seas, there's no such thing as a police force, except for the one you have on board or in escort. The only effective way to meet the offensive force of pirates is with naval/maritime defensive force. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the affected companies or their nations' governments once knew but have now forgotten this.