“I want to stop. It's dangerous out at sea. I have a dream that one day I will make so much money I can quit this work... But until then, what else can I do? ” — Agus Laodi, Pirate
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Kelly McEvers
It's not like there's a manual on How to Find a Pirate. So I started reporting this story by simply heading to a region that's famous for piracy: Indonesia's Riau Province, which is made up of some 300 islands dotted across a narrow channel that connects the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea.
As in most industries — whether it's investment banking or organized crime — with piracy, it's all about who you know. So I began by asking local journalists how they meet pirates. But I soon learned that Indonesian journalists don't report on piracy, even though the region has, for centuries, been one of the world's most active spots for maritime crime.
The reason they don't report on piracy has mainly to do with national pride. If we admit there's a problem, the logic goes, then we admit we can't handle it ourselves.
This kind of thinking meant I spent three frustrating weeks working local networks of journalists, officials, and ex-pirates — three weeks of phone calls, waiting, interviews, waiting, and more waiting — and still, I didn't meet a real pirate.
I had read about a French academic who did field research on piracy in Riau. I found him on Facebook and asked for his advice. When he finally got back to me, he gave me the break I needed: the names of two ex-pirates with strong connections to one of the most powerful pirate syndicates in the area.
The two men work as boat-taxi drivers, a common profession for ex-pirates and pirates-to-be. My interpreter, Edi, and I met them in the lobby of a hotel a few blocks from mine. They didn't want me to divulge their names, so I'll call them Andi and Joni.
From the moment I saw them, I could tell these guys were different from the other ex-pirates I'd met. They were scruffy and sunburned; they chain-smoked and spoke in gravelly voices. There was no artifice in the way they talked, no guile.
I told them I wanted to do a story about what it's really like to be a pirate. "Americans have the wrong view," I said. "They either think you are Johnny Depp or you are helping terrorists."
This latter claim is commonly made by American and Japanese officials when they propose to send their own patrols to the Strait of Malacca. The Indonesian government has fiercely resisted such outside involvement. Instead, they prefer to work with the navies of neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.
After hours of negotiation, Andi and Joni agreed to go look for a pirate. They said they had one in mind, but he was on a remote island. They said they'd need money for gas. I gave them about $50, knowing I may never see them again.
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