In praise of modern pirates?

An article in today's Middle East Online describes the code of conduct and justice system followed by the contemporary Somali pirates which, in some ways, resembles historical forms of piratical organization and challenges contemporary ideas of pirates as unorganized thugs:

"I have never seen gangs that have rules like these. They avoid many of the things that are all too common with other militias," said Mohamed Sheikh Issa, an elder in the Eyl region. "They don’t rape, and they don’t rob the hostages and they don’t kill them. They just wait for the ransom and always try to do it peacefully," he said.

Somalia's complex system of clan justice is often rendered obsolete by the armed chaos that has prevailed in the country for two decades, but the pirates have adapted it effectively. Abdi Garad, an Eyl-based commander who was involved in recent attacks on US ships, explained that the pirates have a mountain hide-out where leaders can confer and where internal differences can be solved. "We have an impregnable stronghold and when there is a disagreement among us, all the pirate bosses gather there," he said.The secretive pirate retreat is a place called Bedey, a few miles from Eyl. "We have a kind of mobile court that is based in Bedey. Any pirate who commits a crime is charged and punished quickly because we have no jails to detain them," Garad said.

Some groups representing different clans farther south in the villages of Hobyo and Haradhere would disagree with Garad's claim that Somalia's pirates all answer to a single authority. But while differences remain among various groups, the pirates' first set of rules is precisely aimed at neutralising rivalries, Mohamed Hidig Dhegey, a pirate from Puntland, explained. "If any one of us shoots and kills another, he will automatically be executed and his body thrown to the sharks," he said from the town of Garowe. "If a pirate injures another, he is immediately discharged and the network is instructed to isolate him. If one aims a gun at another, he loses five percent of his share of the ransom," Dhegey said.

Perhaps the most striking disciplinary feature of Somali "piratehood" is the alleged code of conduct pertaining to the treatment of captured crews. "Anybody who is caught engaging in robbery on the ship will be punished and banished for weeks. Anyone shooting a hostage will immediately be shot," said Ahmed Ilkacase. "I was once caught taking a wallet from a hostage. I had to give it back and then 25,000 dollars were removed from my share of the ransom," he said.

Following the release of the French yacht Le Ponant in April 2008, investigators found a copy of a "good conduct guide" on the deck which forbade sexual assault on women hostages. As Ilkacase found out for himself, pirates breaking internal rules are punished. Conversely, those displaying the most bravery are rewarded with a bigger share of the ransom, called "saami sare" in Somali. "The first pirate to board a hijacked ship is entitled to a luxurious car, or a house or a wife. He can also decide to take his bonus share in cash," he explained.

Foreign military commanders leading the growing fleet of anti-piracy naval missions plying the region in a bid to protect one of the world's busiest trade routes acknowledge that pirates are very organised. "They are very well organised, have good communication systems and rules of engagement," said Vice Admiral Gerard Valin, commander of the French joint forces in the Indian Ocean.

The booty distribution mechanisms, punishments for robbery aboard the ship, and informal justice procedures described by the Somali pirates have some very close parallels to the codes of conduct of 17th and 18th century pirates praised by Peter Leeson and debated a few weeks ago in the Roguish Commonwealth here. There's little evidence of democratic norms, but the economic incentives for better organization and systems of rules is strongly in evidence in the modern example.

We would like to take this opportunity to observe that Leeson's NPR op-ed originally entitled "In Praise of Pirates" has since been changed to "In Defense of Pirates (The Old Time Ones)." The troubling line about pirates being "harbingers" of democracy has been changed to "experimenters" and Leeson's original concluding paragraph:

Modern pirates can't lay claim to helping pioneer liberty, democracy and equality. But early 18th-century pirates can. In this way, historical sea scoundrels contributed something to the world worth as much as, and possibly even more than, what they took out. So go ahead, say "arrgh!," "avast!" and "shiver me timbers" without guilt. It's OK to impersonate, and even praise, pirates.

has been replaced by this considerably more watered down version:

Like modern Somali pirates, historical Caribbean pirates were also violent thugs and deserve our condemnation. But historical pirates, at least, gave us something more than violent thuggishness, and perhaps even something to praise—an at least partial embrace of liberty, democracy, and equality in time when it was hard come by.

Needless to say, we heartily approve of the modifications. It's hard to imagine praising the Somali pirates, even while being impressed by their alleged codes of conduct, which just goes to show how you can admire a system without admiring its enactors -- the point we made about historical pirates as well.