KUALA LUMPUR: Japanese experts have trained 18 instructors from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in enhanced arresting techniques to capture violent criminals safely at sea and prevent injury to officers.
The Japan Coast Guard's Takuma Hashimoto said the Arresting Technique Course 2023, conducted jointly with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), was vital to ensuring maritime safety and enforcement in Malaysia.
He said it would help Malaysian maritime personnel fight illegal fishing, smuggling and prevent and suppress piracy and trafficking of drugs in the seas.
Hashimoto, an officer from the Mobile Cooperation Team, International Strategy Division, Administration Department, said ensuring international shipping lanes were safe was vital as seas around Malaysia were important routes that connect the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
"Japan aims to realise the Free and Open Indo-Pacific regional concept together with Malaysia through capacity enhancement of arresting techniques for MMEA officers," he said.
The Japan Coast Guard despatched two members from its Mobile Cooperation Team, which provides foreign coast guard agencies with capacity building on maritime safety and security.
Hashimoto said the programme would be helpful for future capacity building and lead to further economic development in both countries.
The 18 instructors from state MMEA offices in Malaysia attended the course from Jan 30 to Feb 3 at the Akademi Maritim Sultan Ahmad Shah in Kuantan.
Japan and Malaysia are both maritime nations and have been cooperating to maintain maritime safety and security around Malaysia.
Tokyo has despatched experts to work with MMEA through JICA to conduct technical cooperation projects in maritime law enforcement and search and rescue operations since the establishment of MMEA in 2005.
Hashimoto said Japan would further enhance the Japan Coast Guard's relations with Malaysia to promote maritime safety and security in the region.
MMEA's Maritime Commander Izwanhadi Idros praised the "close range without weapons technique" taught by the Japanese instructors, saying it is so effective that it has been incorporated into MMEA's standard operating procedure.
Asked how the Japanese technique differed from MMEA's defensive techniques, Izwanhadi, who is deputy director of the Operations Training Section of the Maritime Enforcement and Coordination Division in Putrajaya, said MMEA officers were not trained in defensive martial arts such as taekwondo or silat.
"However, in areas such as interdiction or stopping people and searching them, we absorb the Japan Coast Guard's 'seiatsu' instruction manual, which is more effective to bring down or arrest a suspect.
"When we search suspects, we will use tools, equipment, pistols, handcuffs, batons, pepper sprays and such, but if we are attacked too quickly and are not able to use these tools, these arresting techniques will come in handy to counter the suspects and protect ourselves."
He said the techniques would be useful in subduing suspects as MMEA personnel often faced attacks and aggression when they go on board vessels for inspections.
Criminal acts involving foreign fishermen sometimes occur in waters off the South China Sea in Kelantan Terengganu, Pahang and Johor.
In waters off Johor and the Straits of Malacca, cases often involve trade vessels and smuggling into Klang. In waters off Perak, cases often involve smuggling and illegal fishing.
Maritime Lieutenant Commander Nurul Hanin Mohd Isa, the commanding officer of KM Nyalau, said she hoped to break the glass ceiling in her area of work.
She said she was keen on training more female MMEA enforcement officers in arresting techniques as they were also involved in search operations on boats and ships. --BERNAMA