Reshuffle puts 'right person in right place': government

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tar is expected in August
ounts of the trial
lice chief Wang Lijun
ct on information
ted of murder
procedural way with as little
drama as possible”.
Both Xinhua and the People’s
Daily, the Communist
Party’s official paper, urged
support for the decision.
Xinhua called on people to
“recognise the ugly face” of officials
“who sought personal
gain” and on local governments
to “defend the authority”
of the Beijing leadership.
“China’s history has repeatedly
proved that the stability
and security of the country
can only be ensured when
the authority of the central
government is maintained,” it
said.
The scandal emerged last
year ahead of a once-a-decade
leadership transition, in
which Bo had been considered
a candidate for the Politburo
Standing Committee – China’s
most powerful body.
His downfall was triggered
after his police chief
and right-hand man Wang Lijun
fled to a US consulate in
Chengdu city near Chongqing,
allegedly to seek asylum. Bo
was detained a month later.
He had cultivated an unusually
populist public image
and led a high-profile antimafia
campaign, which resulted
in scores of arrests but
led to allegations of torture
against suspects.
Bo also revived some elements
of 1960s Communist
Party culture as part of a “Sing
Red” campaign involving
massive rallies, which drew
comparisons with China’s tumultuous
Cultural Revolution
period.
Indicted for bribery,
embezzlement
and abuse of power,
July 25, 2013
His wife, Gu Kailai,
was handed a
suspended death
sentence in August
for the murder of
British businessman
Neil Heywood
Bo Xilai with
use of power
His approach won popular
support but also divided top
leaders, some of whom felt
wary about the leftist bent.
Bo’s wife was given a suspended
death sentence last
August for fatally poisoning
businessman and family
friend Neil Heywood. The
penalty is normally commuted
to a life sentence in China.
Wang was sentenced to
15 years in prison in September
for defection and other
crimes.
Bo himself was removed
from his party and government
posts, losing his legal
immunity at the end of 2012.
Official media said he had
“borne major responsibility”
for the murder of Heywood
and had taken “massive”
bribes and had indulged in
inappropriate sexual relations
with “multiple women”.
It is unclear what evidence
will be revealed in court. Trials
in China are not public
and move quickly, with judgements
often decided beforehand
by political authorities,
especially in high-profile
cases.
One user of China’s popular
microblog Sina Weibo
questioned whether the trial
“will showcase fairness and
justice”.
Bo has appointed two lawyers,
both members of a law
firm that has close ties to the
ruling party.
The last former Politburo
member to be tried for corruption,
Chen Liangyu, received
an 18-year prison term
in 2008. – AFP
Philippine indie film fest a
platform for raw talent
THE Phillipines’ independent
film festival opens Friday
with a growing reputation for
showcasing world-class movies
focused on gritty social issues,
with a seedy underworld
and migrant labour among this
year’s themes.
“We remain a small festival
in Asia, but we have become a
springboard for brave movies
to be shown abroad,” Laurice
Guillen, Cinemalaya Foundation
vice president and competition
director, told AFP.
Cinemalaya was launched
to discover new, passionate
filmmakers willing to push
boundaries and create important
works -- providing alternatives
to the usual feel-good Filipino
and Hollywood films that
dominate the box office.
“We show films that are
based on real stories that break
new ground and are done with
a human heart,” Guillen said.
But it wasn’t always easy.
The first batch of movies
were shot and recorded on
mini-DV (digital video) whose
audio quality was far below
that of big-budget productions,
Guillen said, adding they were
criticised as crude.
But with seed money from
one of the Philippines’ most
prominent businessmen and
mentoring from seasoned directors,
the quality has gradually
improved.
“Many [people] recognised
later that there was something
brave and innovative going on,”
she said.
Asia-Pacific World 39
Japan eyeing drones for defence plan
JAPAN needs amphibious
units and surveillance drones
to protect its outlying islands,
the defence ministry said Friday,
as possibly-armed Chinese
coastguards plied the waters
near a disputed archipelago.
In a paper that had been
widely reported on Thursday,
the ministry said it was necessary
to boost the strength
and range of forces that could
be used to protect Japan’s farflung
territories.
“To deploy units quickly
in response to a situation, it
is important...to have an amphibious
function that is similar
to US Marines,” capable of
conducting landing operations
on remote islands, it said.
The interim report, which
was approved by a high-level
defence meeting on Friday,
also advocates the introduction
of a drone reconnaissance
fleet that could be used to
monitor distant islands.
The report will be reflected
in Japan’s long-term defence
outline that is expected to be
published towards the end of
this year.
The paper also stresses “the
need to boost a comprehensive
capability of containment” as
part of anti-ballistic missile
measures against North Korea.
The phraseology reflects an
on-going debate among politicians
about the need to re-interpret
aspects of the pacifist
country’s military stance, defence
officials told reporters,
and steered clear of any mention
of “first strike”.
“We are not talking about
pre-emptive attack. That’s not
good,” a defence official said.
“People came and watched
because they wanted to see
what the filmmakers were saying.
They saw the heart and
soul in the movies that were
shown.”
Cinemalaya begins its work
in the middle of each year, accepting
as many as 200 applications
for film grants from
aspiring film makers across the
archipelago.
A selection committee whittles
the number down to the
best proposals from 15 directors,
who are then called in for
interviews.
Once they pass that, they
are given funds so they can begin
producing their work, with
Cinemalaya experts periodically
reviewing the rushes and
giving technical and creative
advice.
Guillen said that, considering
each film cannot exceed a
production cost of 3.5 million
pesos (US$81,000), the end
products had been, for the
most part, astounding.
Among this year’s most
anticipated movies is “Porno”,
which director Adolf Alix said
depicted three lonely people
seeking fulfillment in their
empty lives through pornography.
Alix, considered one of the
Philippines’ young emerging
talents, is a Cinemalaya veteran
with ‘Porno’ his fifth in competition
since 2006.
His offering last year was
a brooding tale about poorly
armed soldiers stationed in a
Philippine-occupied island in
the Spratlys, an archipelago in
the South China Sea claimed by
China and other nations.
The movie was honoured as
Best Asian Film at the Warsaw
Film Festival.
“Cinemalaya has been the
right vehicle, allowing film
makers like me to showcase
our off-tangent subjects that
may not be for commercial production,”
he told AFP.
“I am a Cinemalaya product
through and through and
the festival has helped directors
like me get our work out
there.”
For first-time filmmaker
Hannah Espia, 26, Cinemalaya
will this year give her a chance
to honour the millions of Filipino
overseas workers whose
dollar remittances keep the
Philippine economy afloat.
Her movie, ‘Transit’, tackles
the plight of a Filipino single
father seeking to protect his
young son from being deported
by Israel, where he works as a
caregiver.
“We always say OFWs (Filipino
migrant workers) are our
modern day heroes, but we really
do not know their struggles,”
she said.
Both directors said they
hoped their films would follow
the success of ‘Bwakaw’,
last year’s standout that tells
the story of a grumpy old man
grappling with his homosexuality.
Time magazine hailed it as
one of 10 must-see films when
Japan
300 km
TAIWAN
CHINA
Okinawa
it made its way to the New York
Film Festival last year.
The movie was subsequently
entered as the Philippines’
entry to the US Academy
Awards, but was eventually cut.
One of Cinemalaya’s other
standout films was ‘Engkwentro’
(Clash), based on the reallife
story of two brothers involved
with local gangs being
targeted by a vigilante “death
squad” allegedly backed by a
powerful politician.
The director, Pepe Diokno,
was just 22 when his film went
on to win the New Horizon’s
section of the Venice Film Festival
in 2009.
And while Cinemalaya primarily
serves as an entry-point
for relatively unknown actors
and directors, it has also started
attracting mainstream stars.
This year the hugely popular
Vilma Santos deglamorises
herself as a bit actor in ‘Ekstra’.
With screenings expanding
in recent years from Cinemalaya’s
traditional home at
the Cultural Center of the Philippines
and into commercial
cinemas across Manila, local
audiences are also growing to
match the rise in quality.
Nearly a decade into the
Cinemalaya experiment, Guillen
takes great satisfaction that
more and more people are appreciating
the essence of the
festival.
“I always say that if you
want to understand our culture,
you need to watch our
films,” she said. – AFP
RUSSIA
TOKYO
PACIFIC
OCEAN
Kuril Islands
disputed
with Russia
Senkaku/Diaoyu
disputed with
China
Mariana
Islands
“We have this awareness
that given changes in the security
environment surrounding
Japan, we have to discuss
whether it is enough for us to
depend on US forces in terms
of capability to attack enemy
territory,” he told reporters.
Japan and the US have a security
treaty that binds Washington
to coming to Tokyo’s
defence if it is attacked.
The pact is part of a postwar
settlement that left tens of
thousands of American troops
and a lot of hardware in Japan,
sometimes euphemistically referred
to as an “unsinkable aircraft
carrier”.
Experts say North Korea,
through the UN-banned tests
of ballistic missile technologies
and nuclear weapons,
has improved its offensive
capabilities.
China has become increasingly
active in the seas surrounding
Japan, including the
waters near the Tokyo-administered
Senkaku islands in the
East China Sea, which Beijing
claims as the Diaoyu islands.
The row over their ownership,
which began decades
ago, erupted last September
when Japan nationalised three
of the islands. It took another
turn on Wednesday when
possibly-armed Chinese coastguard
vessels sailed through
nearby waters for the first
time.
Later in the day Tokyo
scrambled fighters to shadow
a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft
that flew in international
airspace in between two Okinawan
islands.
It was the first time Beijing
had sent a military plane
through the gap and out to the
Pacific Ocean, Tokyo officials
said, adding they saw it as a
sign of “China’s ever-growing
maritime advance”.
Four Chinese coastguard
vessels were back in the waters
off the islands on Friday,
their Japanese opposite number
said.
Abe’s administration decided
to review the current
long-term defence outline
which was drafted by the nowopposition
Democratic Party
of Japan in 2010.
The hawkish premier this
year boosted Japan’s defence
budget for the first time in
over a decade against the
backdrop of growing concerns
among many countries in the
region about China. – AFP