Politically Battered

Special Report cambodia’s one-sided polls
JULY 4-10, 2008
Musharraf
Politically Battered
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ISSN 19052650
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BROUGHT TO YOU BY ASIA’S TOP PAPERS
JULY 4-10, 2008 • Vol 3 No 27
AFP
AFP
Special
report
15
Cambodia’s
One-Sided Polls
Dominant People’s
Party has formidable
war-chest and the
backing of Cambodia’s
wealthiest tycoons
ASIANOLOGY 5
VIEWPOINT 8
A look at some of the region’s beauty queens who
made waves not only in
their home countries but
across the world
It’s déjà vu for Malaysian
opposition leader Anwar
Ibrahim who is facing
another sodomy charge
1998 All Over Again?
the korea herald
The Prettiest Of ‘Em All
Cover Story 10
Political Yo-yo
Battered but not down? Even without the
army’s backing, Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf has managed to knock every
political challenge
China Daily
Business 24
Making Over Japan
Shu Uemura’s ‘open atelier’ has become a norm in
the beauty industry after it
started 25 years ago
ENTERTAINMENT 28
Preparing For Battle
AFP
John Woo is back with his
latest Chinese epic
extravaganza
PHOTO ESSAY 18
Protest Nation
With skyrocketing oil and
commodity prices, most
Asian cities are filled with
protests these days
COVER IMAGE | DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP PHOTO
People 30
Love Guru and ‘Miss
Saigon’
Singapore’s Dr Love has
tapped technology to get
into the bottom of sex education while Broadway star
Leah Salonga contemplates
on being over 30 where
expectations get higher
BEIJING OLYMPICS 32
Hot Stuff
The hottest trend for the
season is anything that has
to do with the Olympics
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Photo from Xinhua News Agency
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Asi anology
a-sia-no-lo-gi/Anything about Asia's cultures, traditions, aspirations and uniqueness.
photos: AFP
Riyo
Mori
Michelle
Yeoh
Maggie
Cheung
Lee
Ha-nui
Zhang
Zilin
Who’s The Fairest Of ‘Em All?
T
his year’s Miss Universe pageant
will be held in Nha Trang, Viet
Nam, on July 14. We look back to some
of the region’s beauty queens who made
waves not only in their home countries
but across the world.
Zhang Zilin from CHINA won in
last year’s Miss World and is the first
from East Asia to win the title. Zhang
is a model and also an athlete, having
trained in various types of sports at the
tender age of eight. She excels in triple
jump and hurdles and has undergone
professional training in the 100-metre
hurdles alongside Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang.
In 1983, Maggie Cheung won second place and Miss Photogenic in the
Miss HONG KONG pageant. She may
not have won the major title but she
went on to grab a more significant position as one of Asia’s most celebrated
actresses, winning international acting
awards. Her breakthrough role was
Jackie Chan’s leading lady in Police
Story, but it was Wong Kar Wai’s movie As Tears Go By in 1988 that began
her serious acting career.
Sushmita Sen won the title of
Miss INDIA at the age of 18 beating
Aishwarya Rai. She became Miss
Universe in 1994 and has since become gained fame in Bollywood.
Sen, who has also adopted a baby
girl, is known as a pretty daring
person in the Indian film industry.
She dates openly and even admitted
to an affair with a married man.
JAPAN’s Riyo Mori is the only second Japanese to bag the Miss Universe
crown, winning it in 2007. The dance
instructor from Shizuoka plans to open
a multicultural dance school in Tokyo.
The first Japanese to win the crown
was Akiko Kojima in 1959.
Lee Ha-nui, better known as Honey Lee in the Western media, represented SOUTH KOREA at the Miss
Universe 2007 pageant in Mexico
City. She ended her country’s 19year-drought by finishing as 3rd runner-up. Since then, she has clinched
endorsement deals for fashion brands
and appeared on TV shows.
Michelle Yeoh was crowned Miss
MALAYSIA in 1983. In the 1990s,
she started her movie career in Hong
Kong acting in martial arts films like
The Heroic Trio and Wing Chun. She
became an A-list Asian actor when
she played the role of a Bond girl in
the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow
Never Dies. Her Hollywood credential includes Crouching Tiger Hidden
Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha.
The PHILIPPINES ’ Gloria Diaz is
a veteran actress and the first Filipino to bring home the Miss Universe crown. She was only 18 when
she became Miss Universe in 1969
after outsmarting other candidates
on the question on how to welcome
the first men that had just landed on
the moon—Neil Armstrong, Edwin
Aldrin and Michael Collins—as soon
as they were back on the planet. The
second Filipina to win the Miss Universe pageant in 1973 is Margarita
Moran-Floirendo, now engaged in
business and married to a politician.
Bangkok-born Apasara Hongsakula held the Miss Universe title in
1965 and was the first candidate from
THAILAND to win the crown. She was
a high school student at a boarding
school in Singapore when she won. At
5’4” tall, Apasara is the shortest Miss
Universe ever crowned. The second
Thai Miss Universe is Porntip Nakhirunkanok who won in 1988 at the age
of 19. Porntip is well-known in Thailand for her charity work, especially
her effort to help the victims of the
2004 tsunami.
Sources: China Daily, sushmita-sen.com, Wikipedia, Pageant Almanac, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Across Asia
AFP
Power-assisted bikes gear up
OSAKA: In an effort to sidestep the fi-
372,000 lose jobs in Sichuan quake
BEIJING: The May 12 earthquake
has cost at least 372,000 urban
residents in Sichuan their jobs,
raising the number of jobless in the
province to more than 700,000,
the Chinese government said.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said Sichuan farmers lost
about US$6 billion in the quake, which
killed millions of farm animals and deprived up to 30 million rural residents
of most of their belongings.
It will take three to five years to
rebuild the agriculture sector of the
province, FAO said.
Sichuan is China’s third most populous province, with about 27 million
urban and 60 million rural residents.
It has been the largest source of migrant workers too, accounting for 11
million of them last year.
Li said 16,289 local enterprises suf-
SEOUL: North Korea has re-
fused the South’s proposal of
last month to send 50,000
tonnes of corn there, the unification ministry said.
“Through the Red Cross
channel in Panmunjeom last
week, we have asked for its position on our offer of corn aid,
and the North Korean official
said they would not accept it,”
ministry spokesman Kim Honyoun said.
— THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
— XIE CHUANJIAO/ CHINA DAILY
AFP
North Korea refuses Seoul’s
food aid
fered direct economic losses of 99.78
billion yuan ($14.5 billion) in the
quake. This could be a major reason
why existing jobs were lost and new
ones have dried up.
But despite the difficulties, Li said,
local governments have managed
to help more than 40,000 people
get jobs by holding job fairs and
providing free information.
The government has pledged to get
employment for at least one member
of every jobless family.
Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang officiated the signing of 20 agreements
aimed at boosting employment in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, the three
provinces hit by the quake.
Under the agreements, 19 provinces,
municipalities and cities will create at
least 100,000 jobs for the quake survivors and help train 175,000 of them by
September.
nancial sting of skyrocketing gas prices, more companies are backpedalling
on the use of automobiles and turning
instead to power-assisted bicycles.
Since power-assisted bicycles were
first developed in 1993 by Yamaha
Motor Co in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, about 10 other domestic firms
have began manufacturing them.
Power-assisted bicycles have steadily gained popularity among homemakers and the elderly. One particular
model, outfitted with thick tires and a
luggage rack double the width of that
on an ordinary bicycle, has found favour among businesspeople.
According to the Bicycle Association, 282,000 power-assisted bikes
were sold in 2007, a 10 per cent increase from the previous year.
Panasonic Cycle Technology Co in
Kashiwara, Osaka Prefecture, said the
use of business-use power-assisted
bicycles, priced at about 170,000 yen
(US$1,600), had grown about 2.7-fold
in fiscal 2006, from fiscal 2002.
The firm also said the number of inquiries about the bikes had grown exponentially with soaring gas prices.
The firm expects sales of the bicycles
to increase by 80 per cent this year.
The South Korean Red Cross
attempted to send a telegram
to make the offer official, but
the North refused to receive it,
Kim explained.
The Seoul government has
decided to send the aid, without any government-level contact, should North Korea decide to accept it, he added.
Famine-stricken North Korea is currently in discussions
with the United States regarding food aid equivalent to
500,000 tonnes of grain.
— THE KOREA HERALD
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Manpreet ROMANA/AFP
Killer of Peace Corps volunteer
gets life
MANILA : Justice came for Julia
US EMBASSY HANDOUT PHOTO/AFP
Campbell, a Peace Corps volunteer
who gave up a journalistic career in
the United States to work with the
poor in the Philippines but found
death instead on a deserted mountain trail in Ifugao province.
A judge found 25-year-old woodcarver Juan Donald Duntugan, the
lone suspect in the April 8, 2007 killing of Campbell in Batad village, guilty
of murder and sentenced him to life
imprisonment.
The 40-year-old
Campbell, a volunteer English teacher
in Albay province
was posthumously
awarded the Order
Julia Campbell
of the Golden Heart
“for her dedicated
service to the Philippines” by President Gloria Arroyo two months after
she was murdered.
Campbell was bludgeoned with
a rock in April last year while trekking alone in a mountain path in
Batad village, about 10km from the
town proper.
—MELVIN GASCON/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
China signs gas deal with Burma
BEIJING: China has signed a new
deal to buy and pipe natural gas from
neighbouring Burma to southern Yunnan province.
An oil pipeline linking Burma’s
western coast with Yunnan in China
has been talked about for years as a
possible solution to the country’s ‘Malacca Predicament’. This is a reference
to the mainland’s overwhelming reliance on the Strait of Malacca as the
main transit route for oil imports to
feed its booming economy.
About 80 per cent of the crude oil
that China imports from the Middle
East and Africa has to sail through the
Strait of Malacca and up through the
South China sea before reaching the
mainland’s eastern coast.
Under the deal, China National Petroleum Corp will work with five partners for the ‘sale and transportation’ of
the Burma natural gas.
—CHUA CHIN HON/THE STRAITS TIMES
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
Indian gays hold rare march
NEW DELHI: More than 500 Indians
held an unprecedented public demonstration on June 29 for gay rights.
In Bangalore, dozens of gays came
out of the closet to hold what is commonly known as a pride rally. So, too,
did gays in Kolkata, where pride rallies
have been held since 2003.
Among the marchers in New Delhi was K R Gopalan, a retired Indian air force officer whose daughter
is a lesbian.
“I came here to support my daughter,” he said. “I support her decision on
her sexuality.”
The coming-out pride rally underNew directions
BANGKOK: Bud-
ding local filmmakers are invited to join the ‘Produire au
Sud Bangkok’ workshop from October 29 to November 1 as part of the
sixth World Film Festival of Bangkok.
The workshop’s purpose is to increase
the number of films being made in
Southeast Asia by encouraging and
supporting producers and directors—
especially the younger generation—to
produce more creative and independent films. It’s open to anyone between
the ages of 25 and 40.
The producer-director teams that
submit the six best film scripts and
projects as selected by the Produire
au Sud committee will get to attend
the workshop in Bangkok with professional producers, sales agents and
scriptwriters from Europe.
Teams invited from abroad will
get free air tickets and hotel accommodation and also receive ac-
scores how rapidly attitudes are changing in India regarding practices and
ideas that go against the norm. It has
had its famous gays. The late rock star
Freddie Mercury, who fronted the British band Queen, was born in Mumbai
as Farrokh Balsara. He died of AIDS in
1991 and was a homosexual.
But for the most part, homosexuals
have remained in the closet, stigmatised
by society.
India’s laws treat homosexuality as a crime.
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code,
drafted in 1860, prescribes punishment
for up to 10 years for “carnal intercourse
against the order of nature”.
—RAVI VELLOR/THE STRAITS TIMES
creditation to the festival.
Now on its third year, the Produire
au Sud Bangkok is sponsored by
France’s Festival des 3 Continents,
Produire au Sud—Nantes, the French
Foreign Ministry and the French Embassy in Thailand. It focuses on every
step towards getting a film made, from
writing to directing to producing, and
aims to take locally made films to an
international level.
The creators of the best project will
receive two roundtrip air tickets with
hospitality to attend the prestigious
Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes,
France in November.
Deadline for submissions is August 25. Register at www.WorldFilm
BKK.com by clicking to Elodie.
Ferrer@3continents. Use “Application
for Produire au Sud Bangkok 2008” as
email subject.
For more information call
(+66-02) 338 36189 or visit
www.3Continents.com o r e m a i l
[email protected].
•Vie w poi n t•
1998 All Over Again?
The sodomy claim is back just as Malaysia’s de facto
opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s star is rising
Carolyn Hong in Kuala Lumpur
The Straits Times
W
AFP
hen text messages began circulating late on the
Indeed, the mud recently hurled at deputy prime minisevening of June 28 that an aide of former deputy ter Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor falls into the
premier Anwar Ibrahim had lodged a police re- same category. As he inches closer to the top job, the accuport accusing him of sodomy, Malaysians were sations against him have become more sensational.
stunned.
Two weeks ago, a blogger lodged a statutory declaraIt brought back memories of 1998 when Anwar faced ex- tion in court claiming that Rosmah was present when
actly the same accusations. That sparked an upheaval which a Mongolian woman was blown up. Najib has denied
changed Malaysia’s politics in ways that were impossible to the claim on behalf of his wife.
foresee then. Now, it would appear that Malaysia has come
The Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu, was the
back to exactly the same point; just like a decade ago, Anwar lover of a former associate of Najib, analyst Razak Baginda,
now faces sensational accusations just when his star is rising who is now on trial for abetting her killing.
and seems unstoppable.
“Such mud slinging can be exTen years ago, then prime minister
pected to intensify,” said the poMahathir Mohamad sacked Anwar,
litical analyst.
his deputy and heir apparent, on the
Najib and Anwar are the two leaders
grounds that he had sodomised severdeemed to be within the closest sight
al of his employees, who had reported
of the prime minister’s job.
the alleged deed.
Given the perceived rivalry, Najib
Today, it is an aide—some say
was immediately dragged into the
he was no more than a party volunsodomy saga despite the lack of any
teer—Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 23, who
concrete proof.
is claiming that the opposition leader
Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah Ismail,
had sodomised him without consent.
sought to establish a link by showing
The timing could not be more
reporters a photograph of Saiful takdramatic.
en with an aide of Najib in the deputy
Anwar is the central opposition
prime minister’s office.
figure in the power struggle that has
But it was not clear when the photo
been playing out on the Malaysian
was taken, and at any rate, it was part
stage since the March 8 general elecof a series of photos of Saiful with othtion left Prime Minister Abdullah THE WIFE AND THE VICTIM: Wan Azizah Ismail, wife of er Cabinet ministers.
Anwar Ibrahim, shows a mobile phone showing a photograph
Badawi severely weakened.
There was also a claim that
of Anwar’s aide Saiful Bahri (L), during a news conference.
The ruling Barisan Nasional
Saiful used to work for Najib, but
(BN) coalition is fighting for its survival and the lead- an aide to the deputy prime minister told The Straits
ership struggle has witnessed a seemingly unending Times that this was not true.
series of intrigues and plots.
While this conspiracy theory sounds attractive at first
Anwar is a major player in this high-stakes power play. A blush, it has been pointed out by observers that it would
master politician, he moulded the disparate opposition into have been an incredibly clumsy move for Najib, given that it
a formidable threat to the once all-powerful BN. He has re- smacks of a strategy that failed in 1998.
peatedly threatened to break the ruling coalition’s grip on the
The police investigation will take time and how the BN
federal government by wooing defectors from its ranks.
government conducts itself in the case will be watched.
He has said repeatedly that he has the numbers to take over
If Anwar is seen as, yet again, a victim of Machiavellian
the government by mid-September. He has yet to show his politics, it will work to the advantage of the opposition.
slate, with some suspecting him of just playing mind games
The March 8 general election gave a hint of this. Surveys
and others insisting he will deliver that fatal blow to the BN showed that soon after Anwar was attacked in the media dursoon enough. Against such a backdrop, it is not surprising ing campaigning, voters started to abandon the BN.
that many are speculating that the latest sodomy allegation is
However, it is unlikely that there will be an exact repeat
a move to take Anwar out of the picture.
of 1998, even though there is a strong sense of dejá vu over
A political analyst said this was a crisis waiting to happen. Saiful’s sodomy accusation.
“In this game, there are no democratic means or channels
The key players this time are different. Unlike Mahathir,
for the resolution of the leadership question. In such a sce- Abdullah reportedly does not have a strong grip over key innario, you will see violence or character assassination as a way stitutions such as the judiciary and the police.
to kill off the opponent,” he said.
But whether that will spell fewer or more problems for AnIn Malaysia, scandal is the most effective method.
war is unclear right now.
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
•Vie w poi n t•
Journalistic Divide
The truth is compromised when South Korean media is split on the US beef imports issue
Seoul
The Korea Herald
P
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
in reflection of media organisations’ fluctuating relations
with successive governments. President Kim Dae-jung’s
‘government of the people’ countered the relentless criticism
from Chosun, JoongAng and Dong-a with tax probes and
libel suits. President Roh Moo-hyun endeared progressive
papers and Internet media as well as both public broadcasters as he battled with the recalcitrant major dailies.
Cho-Joong-Dong now exude sympathy for President Lee
Myung-bak regarding the beef trade issue while the networks have turned their back on him. The large newspapers
are paying a high price. They are suffering a boycott by antiUS and anti-government protesters, who are even pressing
companies to stop running ads in them.
An alliance has been established among the progressive
JUNG YEON-JE/AFP
olitical division by the criteria of left and right is
a universal pattern today and the socioeconomic
divide is widening in most capitalist societies. On
top of this, we are witnessing a journalistic divide in
the most undesirable form during the months-long
turmoil surrounding US beef imports. The conservativeprogressive division, more precisely the pro and anti-government split, in the South Korean media is so extreme that
truth is compromised.
As everyone is painfully aware, on one side of the divide
are the mass-circulation, conservative newspapers, collectively referred to by the acronym of ‘Cho-Joong-Dong’,
which stands for Chosun, JoongAng and Dong-a. Media outlets on the other side include progressive dailies the Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang Shinmun,
the KBS and MBC broadcasting
networks, and an assortment of
Internet newspapers.
They differ even in reporting
the number of protesters who
gather at Seoul Plaza every evening to stage the often violent
candlelight demonstrations. The
former group gives more credit to
the generally conservative police
estimate, while the latter group is
more willing to quote the organisers of the rallies, who announce
up to 10 times more attendance.
As Cho-Joong-Dong focus on
the unruly activities of demonstrators attacking police, the
TV networks and the dissenting
off-line and online newspapers
WHAT’S THE BEEF?: Riot
chastise police authorities for
policemen detain a South
Korean protester during a
spawning violence by overrerally against US beef imacting to what they describe as
ports in Seoul.
a “peaceful mass movement”.
Kyunghyang reported that a
young woman protester had her finger chopped off by
the sharpened edge of a policeman’s shield, but the
authorities have yet to confirm any such victim.
A Seoul prosecution team is investigating the suspected distortion of facts in an MBC documentary aired
in late April, which raised questions about the safety
of US beef. Its footage of downer cattle gave viewers
the impression that they were victims of mad cow
disease. In the same programme, MBC misquoted (via
Korean subtitles) the mother of a Virginia woman who
died of a degenerative brain disease. The translation
portrayed her as saying that her daughter could have
been a victim of the human form mad cow disease.
It is unfortunate that the journalistic divide has developed
media, leftist civic groups and the political left to besiege the
Lee administration—a siege physically staged every night at
the Gwanghwamun intersection. No one can tell how long
and how far this chaos will go but what is certain is that
media credibility in general is being seriously challenged, as
some newspapers, broadcasters and Internet writers twist
facts oblivious to journalistic obligations.
These Korean media must share responsibility with the
Lee administration for having let things get out of control
by disseminating half-truth and outright fallacy in the name
of protecting public health. They should look back on what
they have done the past months, restrain ideological and political pursuits and try to help restore reason and conscience
in our society by making only truthful, unbiased reports.
Cover Story
Political
Yo-yo
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has
managed to knock every political
challenge even though he is no longer
in uniform and apparently does not
have the backing of the army
Shamshad Ahmad in Lahore
The Nation (Pakistan)
D
uring the elections on February 18, the Pakistani people
gave their verdict loud and
clear. It was an
overwhelming
vote of ‘no-confidence’ against General
Pervez Musharraf and the system that
he represented. It was also a referendum against dictatorship.
But this verdict remains discarded.
General Musharraf refuses to accept it
and is denying the people their right to
be governed by the elected representatives and leaders of their own choice.
What is even more shocking is the total
indifference of the new civilian government to its own mandate for bringing
about a change in the system.
Ostensibly, it appeared to be the
war of one against all. But in effect,
it is now turning into a one-sided affair with our political gnomes being
no match to the Machiavellian ingenuities of their nemesis. Through his
tactical manoeuvres, Musharraf has
managed to knock every political chal10
lenge to his authority even though he
is no longer in uniform and apparently also does not have the backing
of the army. He has been keeping the
country’s politicians, be they in power
or out of power, on the tenterhooks of
his own lust for power.
In Pakistan, politics has traditionally been a combative struggle. It is
like a boxing bout with winners and
losers both playing the game of power
and intrigue and traditionally sharing
the bounty together through wheeling
and dealing rooted in military-controlled feudalised culture of political
opportunism. In an apocalyptic war
of politics raging in the country since
March last year, surely every round has
gone to General Musharraf.
In the first round, he attempted a
‘technical knockout’ of the country’s
chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad
Chaudhry, by ousting him for refusing to approve the state of emergency
imposed on November 3. The referee,
in this case the newly independent judiciary, grasped the public mood and
quickly ruled in favour of the chief
justice. In the process, the general
also drew the media’s wrath and civil
society’s outcry for not playing a fair
game. Though bruised, he very much
QUIT: Demonstrators shout
slogans against Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf.
remained in the ring.
He then scored a ‘clean knockout’
against an anguished and exhausted
opposition, first by forcibly deporting
his sole nemesis and arch challenger,
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif. At that
time, the two-time prime minister,
who was ousted by Musharraf in a
1999 coup, was not allowed to return
home after seven years in exile and
forcibly sent back to Saudi Arabia from
the airport. Musharraf then threw the
remaining opposition into chaos and
disarray by using the same old assemblies for his ‘unconstitutional’ re-election and then imposed an undeclared
martial law in the name of emergency.
His final ‘knockout’ blow or what
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Aamir QURESHI/AFP
he himself likes to call as his akhri
mukka (final blow) came in the form
of national reconciliation ordinance
,which granted amnesty to slain leader
Benazir Bhutto and other former politicians charged with corruption. By
doing so, he left the opposition reeling
flat on the ground, disgraced, demoralised and discredited in the eyes of
the people—exactly what Musharraf
wanted at that crucial stage for his
own survival. He was able to bare
the face of Pakistan’s politics of ‘loot
and plunder’ that he had been trying
since he came to power.
He did it with skill and sophistry.
By announcing an amnesty for all politically-motivated corruption charges
pertaining to the period from January
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
1986 to Oct 12, 1999 in the name of
‘national reconciliation’ and ‘political
harmony’, he was able to kill two birds
with one stone: to besmear the image of Pakistan’s politicians, as he did
in his book In the Line of Fire, and to
discredit and neutralise the country’s
largest political party during the runup to fresh elections in the country.
No amount of interpretational
explanations and juridical clarifications will ever undo the damage
that has been done to the country’s
politicians and their slimy politics.
They were punched below the belt
and forced to take full step back
and cease fighting. It will be an uphill task for them now to recover
from this blow. Musharraf remains
the sole beneficiary of this highly
controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance brokered through
multiple domestic and external
stakeholders. It was indeed the
‘mother of all deals’.
He then threw yet another judiciarybased gauntlet in the political minefield of the country. This time he got
his self-anointed ‘referees’ pronounce
a technical knockout against the PMLN leaders. The people reacted with
anger and frustration, and were protesting against the High Court verdict
that disqualified PML-N chief Nawaz
Sharif to participate in the by-poll. The
overall political atmosphere is once
again murky, if not chaotic.
The people are wondering whether
11
Arif Ali/AFP
Cover Story
REINSTATE: Pakistani lawyers demand
the reinstatement of judges fired by
Musharraf under the emergency rule in
November last year.
there is any one to stop these backstage intrigues. Yes, Pakistan does
have “elected” governments in Islamabad and in the four provincial capitals, but they all have yet to make their
presence felt in our day-to-day life.
They are taking no decisions and resolving none of the issues. They don’t
have the will or the ability to do so.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have messed
up the judges’ issue by linking it with
a highly delusive and double-edged
constitutional package.
The people are beginning to have
second thoughts on their electoral
choice. In fact they don’t see government functioning anywhere. The
grand coalition government is concentrated in one person who is calling
the shots through his own whims and
caprices. The political prime minister as country’s chief executive has
no authority or power. He is merely a
rubber stamp. Perhaps, even Shaukat
Aziz, the prime minister handpicked
by Musharraf, had a freer hand.
12
A strange thing has recently happened. At a meeting held in last
week of June in Islamabad, the
prime minister accompanied by his
team—including the foreign minister and Washington-designated
national security advisor—publicly
ceded a free hand involving ultimate authority to decide issues of
war and peace in the tribal areas
to the army chief. What was the
need for this ceremonial occasion? Couldn’t this have been done
through an institutional political
procedure with the involvement of
the parliament?
Musharraf has always been blamed
for making policy turnarounds without going through constitutional
channels. Things do not seem to have
changed a bit. The system continues to
be haunted by the same ghosts and the
same wizardries. The key faces as well
as the fall guys remain untouched.
Harry Potter’s Lord Voldemort now
appears in a civilian robe. No wonder,
Pakistan remains mired in the same
political crisis that has kept this country gripped since last year.
Today, regretfully, Pakistan’s name
continues to raise instant fear and
concern among the nations of the
world. Despite having a civilian political government, Pakistan is today
the only country in the world where
Muslims are being killed by Muslims
themselves. It is still perceived as the
most corrupt, most violent and most
dangerous state in the world. The latest ‘honour’ given to our country is
that of being one of the ten most dysfunctional states in the world.
Meanwhile, the plunderers, profiteers and the looters, murderers and
the killers could not have a safer haven anywhere else in the world. Expediency-based deals rooted in vested
personal interests are now the legal
norm in our system. For any political
party, it would have been far better to
make its political comeback through
a people-based political process. The
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Aamir Qureshi/AFP
FRIENDS OR FOES: Asif Zardari (L), widower of slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto shakes
hands with former premier Nawaz Sharif after their meeting at his residence in Islamabad. Disagreements
between the two over vital political issues have put their partnership at stake.
people are disappointed at the nature,
timing and purport of reaching a deal
through an ordinance under the signatures of a military ruler.
Every one knows the reality. It is
this excess baggage with which some
of the eminent leaders have returned
to the country. Their hands are tied.
They cannot deliver on the mandate
they received in the elections and are
now politicking with their own people. No one trusts them and they are
fast losing popular support.
The people are running out of patience. Public discontent is brewing
and may soon reach a point of no return. They are also disillusioned with
the parliament which, like its predecessor, is no better than a dead wood.
They feel terribly let down on this
hopeless situation. Indeed, the people
are not amused at the ongoing political yo-yo in the country.
The writer is a former foreign secretary
of Pakistan.
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
Coalition
Conundrum
Ever since Asif Zardari took control of his
slain wife Benazir Bhutto’s party, he has been
trying to appease other party leader Nawaz
Sharif. But the friendly gestures are not
enough to bridge the rift that continues to
widen between their parties over the judges’
restoration and future of the president
Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad in Lahore
The Nation (pakistan)
R
uling Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) co-chairman
Asif Zardari says his coalition partners have yet
to fully comprehend his
politics, indicating that it is not only
novel but also capable of delivering.
What one sees happening, however,
would challenge the assumptions.
To make the other party—PML-N—
agree to join the cabinet, Zardari had
agreed to sign the Bhurban Declaration with the party. The accord prom13
Aamir Qureshi/AFP
Cover Story
ised the restoration of
the judges within 30
days through a parliamentary resolution.
Within weeks he went
back on both the time
frame and the procedure. The positions
he subsequently took
badly damaged his
credibility.
He first maintained
that the deadline started after the swearing
in of the provincial
governments and not
the formation of the
federal government as
claimed by the PMLN. Then he took the
stand that there could
be no deadline in political matters. On IN FOCUS: Deposed Pakistani Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (C). Controversies over his and other
another occasion he lawyers’ reinstatement have created a rift in the partnership of Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.
maintained that the
Bhurban Accord was not an agreement treated by Rehman Malik, Zardari’s Raiwind estate rather than at the
but merely a political statement. Then factotum and advisor to the PM on governor’s house. These are the tactics
he suddenly realised that the judges interior affairs, has led it to protest that village elders employ to resolve
could only be restored through a con- on numerous occasions during the minor disputes. Gestures of the sort
stitutional package. The twists and last couple of months.
however cannot heal the rift that
turns over three months have damaged
The ANP was made to look like a continues to widen between the PPP
Zardari’s image as a reliable partner villain when PPP leaders said that the and PML-N on account of vital difand have raised questions about his by-elections had been postponed on the ferences over the judges’ restoration
ability to hold the coalition together.
advice of the government of the North and the future of the president.
His insistence to retain the ‘PCO West Frontier Province (NWFP), one
Asif Zardari had been out of polijudges’—a title given to them by lawyers of the four Pakistani provinces. Ac- tics for a number of years. He spent
for taking oath under the Provisional cusing fingers were raised at Rehman the time mostly relaxing in the US. He
Constitution Order (PCO) in Novem- Malik. But instead of conducting a took no part in the parleys that Benaber 2007—has become all the more probe, the PPP chairman bailed him zir Bhutto conducted with various
questionable after the Lahore High out by pushing the matter under the political forces during the period. He
Court barred Nawaz Sharif from con- rug. Again Rehman Malik annoyed rejoined active politics after Benazir
testing the by-election on June 26. The the NWFP government by unilaterally was assassinated to fill the gap created
decision has put enormous strain on the declaring that the peace deal with the by her untimely death. He has thus
coalition. For the first time, the PML-N Taliban was scrapped drawing strong stepped into shoes too big for him.
legislators decided to hold a demonstra- protests from the coalition partners
He has to realise that important potion outside the national assembly after in the province who had crafted the litical issues cannot be simply pushed
boycotting its proceedings.
agreement. Within days he had to eat under the rug. Polite words and friendly
The new Punjab governor who his words.
gestures are no doubt helpful in buildpresents himself as a PPP loyalist
Asif Zardari deals with his coali- ing good relations between political
continues to be a constant irritant for tion partners with extra politeness, leaders but they can at best paper over
the PML-N. The statements he issues sometime calling Nawaz Sharif his the differences for a short period.
from time to time are resented by elder brother. He has also promised
They can in no way bridge the gulf
the party. His foot dragging over the that close, even brotherly, relations created by disagreements over vital
appointment of the PML-N nominee would be maintained among the political issues for this one has to
for the post of the advocate general next generation of the two families. take the bull by the horns. Unless the
delayed his induction into the office (A similar promise was made to Al- PPP chairperson resolves, and that
for a full month. Pinpricks of the sort taf Hussain, chief of the third largest too urgently, the issues of the restoare hardly conducive to the smooth Pakistani political party, Muttahida ration of the judges in line with the
working of the coalition.
Qaumi Movement, when Zardari vis- public sentiment and of sending the
The way the Awami National Par- ited Aziz Abad).
president home there is little possity (ANP)—one of the components
He said a few days back that he bility of his keeping the coalition toof the ruling coalition—has been may this time stay at Nawaz Sharif’s gether for long.
14
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Special Report
MOBILE CAMPAIGNING: Trucks decorated
with national and party flags of the Cambodian
People’s Party travel along a street during a
campaign ahead of the commune elections in
Phnom Penh in March 2007.
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party appears
certain to return as the dominant party in
the country’s impending national election
Andrew Nette in Phnom Penh
Inter Press Service
W
hile Cambodia’s
national election is
more than a month
away the results are
in little doubt. The
ruling Cambodian
People’s Party (CPP)
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
appears certain to return as the dominant party and, for the first time, win
enough seats in the National Assembly
to rule on its own.
According to the National Election
Committee (NEC), approximately 8.6
million Cambodians are registered
to vote in the polls, the fourth since
the United Nations-sponsored peace
plan in the early 1990s heralded the
TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP
Cambodia’s
One-Sided Polls
end of one-party rule.
And with Cambodian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and a
number of countries gearing up for a
major monitoring effort, charges of
dirty tricks and voter intimidation
are already being levelled against
the powerful CPP.
“The election process can be considered free in the sense that violence
is down, people are obviously not intimidated to cast their vote and the
administration (of the poll) is better,”
said Jerome Cheung, country director
for the National Democratic Institute
(NDI). “It is what happens before the
election that does not make it fair,
including CPP’s total domination of
broadcast media and intimidation of
journalists and opposition.”
“So far we have found some technical problems, but the capacity of
the NEC has been improving and the
number of irregularities has been declining,” said Mar Sophal, monitoring
15
Special Report
coordinator with the Committee for
Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia
(Comfrel).
In one particularly positive change,
votes will be counted at the polling
station at which they are cast on
the night of the election.
In 2003, they were transported to
collective counting stations which,
observers agree, gave increased scope
for manipulation.
The most contentious part of the
process, voter registration, took
place last year with the NEC deciding to remove nearly 600,000 voter
names from the list.
A recent audit of the voter list by a
number of organisations, among them
Comfrel and NDI, found most eligible
voters registered and the vast majority
of invalid voters delisted.
“Some (problems) are administrative, some are the result of overzealous
party officials acting for their party,”
said Cheung. “There’s no national conspiracy by any political party manipulating the registration process.”
It is commune chiefs, the vast majority of whom are CPP affiliated, who
administer the process undertaken
manually in handwritten form. Only
when the registrations lists are passed
on to the NEC in Phnom Penh are they
computerised. This opens up the possibility of significant transfer error.
While observers give NEC credit for
improving its performance, there are
serious misgivings about its capacity
and lack of independence. Concerns
include the appointment of NEC
council members by political parties
and the body’s location within the
interior ministry. With the exception of the two months leading up to
an election, NEC has no permanent
sub-national structure and must rely
on commune councils that take directions from the ministry.
However, the most serious barriers
to free and fair elections stem from the
country’s broader political culture. The
country’s electronic media, most of
which is controlled by CPP, gives little
time to opposition party voices.
Independent media outlets are often
harassed or—as recently happened in
the case of one radio station selling airtime to opposition parties in the central province of Kratie—shut down.
There is also a lingering culture of
intimidation that prevents people
from speaking out more freely in the
16
pre-election period.
In early June, a coalition of 40 Cambodian civil society organisations expressed deep concern over the increase
in political violence in the first half of
2008. There were five assassinations
of political party members and 21 cases of political persecution in the first
half of the year.
Most of the perpetrators are yet to
be arrested, let alone tried, by a court
system that is heavily biased in favour
of the CPP.
“Cases of murder, threat, intimidation and political prosecution are
occurring, especially in far flung
areas,” Thun Saray, president of
local rights group ADHOC, told
a press conference.
Rights lobbies such as Amnesty
International and Human Rights
Watch have also accused the CPP
of political intimidation and manipulation of the judicial system in
the lead-up to the July poll.
While lamenting the lack of a more
level playing field, commentators concede the opposition’s continued focus
on point scoring rather than presenting a unified front also contributes to
the situation. Eleven parties will contest the July 27 poll, down from 23 in
the 2003 election.
The most serious challenger, the
Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), named after
its leader, has been weakened by a series of high-level defections to the CPP
in return for well-paid advisorships,
courtesy state funds.
“I think the CPP knows that we
are doing well, this is why they are
working so hard on their psychological and political game,” said
Mu Soc Hua, SRP deputy secretary-general. “Our people are under pressure, heavy pressure every
day. Some people with less integrity
have been bought off.”
The other major political player
and CPP’s coalition partner, Funcinpec, has virtually disintegrated after
in-fighting following the ouster of its
leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh
two years ago. Ranariddh—who has
formed his own party and is contesting the election from exile in Malaysia—would gain some seats.
A nationwide grassroots political
machine, a formidable war chest, and
the backing of most of the country’s
wealthiest business tycoons augment
the CPP’s dominance.
A recent opinion poll by the International Republican Institute (IRI) in
Phnom Penh found that 70 per cent of
Cambodians believe that the country
is headed in the right direction. While
the poll did not posit any direct correlation to voter intentions, there is little
doubt CPP has positioned itself well
to take credit for Cambodia’s rapid
economic growth while shunting responsibility for problems such as skyrocketing fuel and food prices onto international factors beyond its control.
And while there is speculation that
the so-called ‘youth factor’ will be potentially running against the CPP—
over 50 per cent of registered voters are
between 18 and 30 years of age—John
Willis, IRI country director, disagrees.
“There is no demographic group that is
more pro-CPP than youth.
The majority of youth is in
the rural areas and they are
concerned with livelihoods.
They want jobs and CPP is
able to deliver them.”
Prime Minister Hun Sen
has already vowed that CPP
would govern alone, if victorious, ending an unstable
coalition deal in place since
Cambodia’s first multi-party
election in 1993.
His decision has been facilitated by a constitutional
amendment that allows
government to be formed on
the basis of a simple majority rather than a two-thirds
majority, as was the case in
previous elections.
It will be a historic victory for CPP, installed by
the Vietnamese when they
invaded the country in 1979
and overthrew the Khmer
Rouge government, responsible for the deaths of nearly
two million Cambodians.
It would also be a personal triumph for Hun
Sen, a peasant’s son and
former Khmer Rouge
cadre, who has destroyed,
coopted or outsmarted all
his rivals since being installed as president by the
Vietnamese in 1985.
The United States, Japan and the European
Commission have announced they will be sendJULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
ing monitors for the election.
Comfrel and the other major Cambodian poll monitoring organisation,
Neutral and Impartial Committee for
Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia,
each plan to field some 7,000 short
and long term monitors.
Opposition parties are dismissive of
this effort.
“All the bad things have already
happened,” said Hua of SRP. “I say to
all these international monitors—you
may as well come to Cambodia and
have a vacation on election-day.
“The true test for this democracy
will be when there is a peaceful
transition of power...this has not
happened yet,” said Cheung. It does
not appear to be a test Cambodia
will face this soon.
THAI-CAMBODIA RELATIONS
‘Nothing Lost’ In Preah
Vihear Temple Deal
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
in Bangkok
The Nation (ThAILAND)
THE TEMPLE OF CONTROVERSY: Thai Bud-
dhist monks walk up to the
Preah Vihear temple near
Thai border in Preah Vihear
province, some 543km
north of Phnom Penh.
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP
T
hai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama insists he maintained Thai sovereignty in
dealing with Cambodia over
the Hindu temple of Preah
Vihear.
The joint communiqué
signed with Cambodia’s
deputy prime minister Sok
An on June 18 did not terminate reservations about
the international court’s
ruling made by former foreign minister Thanat Khoman 46 years ago, he said.
“The inherent right, if it
really exists, as reserved by
former minister Thanat,
has not changed. No single
word in the joint statement
mentioned that right and
the reservations held,” he
told parliament.
Sovereignty over the
Preah Vihear temple,
ruled in favour of Cambodia by the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) in
1962, was a hot topic of
debate in the Thai parliament after the opposition
Democrat Party accused
the government of causing
a loss of sovereignty when
it supported Cambodia in
a unilateral application for
World Heritage status.
Actively supporting
Cambodia’s application to
Unesco meant recognition
of Cambodia’s sovereignty
over the temple area, said
Democrat MP Sirichok Sopha. “The ICJ ruled only
that the temple was under
Cambodia’s sovereignty
and Thailand was obli-
gated to hand the temple ruins to
Cambodia, not the base on which
the ruins sit,” he said.
Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said previous governments had
not conceded Cambodian sovereignty
over the base since the ruling.
Noppadon rejected the comment,
saying the Cabinet in July 1962,
shortly after the ruling, agreed to
hand the temple, together with 250
square metres of territory for the
base, to Cambodia.
Abhisit and Noppadon exchanged
words during the Parliament session
over interpretation of the Cabinet’s
resolution on July 11, 2006.
Noppadon said all concerned
Thai agencies interpreted that the
then government agreed to hand the
temple together with the base area to
Cambodia while Abhisit said the base
remained under Thai sovereignty.
As long as Cambodia did not claim
anything beyond the then-handedover area, Thailand lost nothing
beyond what it lost 46 years ago,
Noppadon said.
Cambodia’s new map which was
used in the application was crosschecked against the L 7017 map used
by the Thai military to determine the
Thai boundary, he said.
The joint communiqué made clear
the inclusion of Preah Vihear on the
World Heritage list shall be “without”
prejudice to the right of the two kingdoms on the demarcation work of the
Joint Commission for Land Boundary, Noppadon said.
Moreover, Unesco’s Convention
Concerning the Protection of the
World Cultural and Natural Heritage’s article 11 stated that: The inclusion of a property situated in a territory, sovereignty or jurisdiction over
which is claimed by more than one
State, shall in no way prejudice the
rights of the parties to the dispute,
he said. “We have three layers of legal
protection over our sovereignty.”
17
Photo Essay
2
Pradit Phulsarikij/The Nation (Thailand)
1
4
Protest
Nation
5
Ph o t o s b y
Th e Ko r e a H e r a l d,
Th e S ta r , Th e S tat e s m a n
a n d Th e N at i o n ( Th a i l a n d )
Text by
As i a N e ws N e t wo rk
F
rom Seoul to Bangkok, from
Kolkata to Kuala Lumpur,
the streets of major Asian
cities are filled with protests these
days. With skyrocketing oil and
commodity prices and political uncertainties, the people have no recourse but to walk the parliament of
the street to let their voices heard.
8
7
9
18
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
3
6
FLOODED STREETS: 1,2,4—democracy protest in Bangkok;
3,8,9—oil protest in Kuala Lumpur; 5,6,10—beef protest in
Seoul; 7—separatist protest in Kolkata.
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
10
19
AFP
Politics
RENT MONEY: Haider Isnaji (L), Sulu provincial vice governor Lady Ann Sahidulla (2nd L), Indanan mayor Alvarez Isnaji (3rd L) and an undercover agent (R),
with five million pesos (US$112,500) ransom money delivered to the Isnaji residence by a brother of hostage television journalist Cecilia Drilon to buy her
freedom and those of her crew and guide from the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers.
The Business Of
Kidnapping
The ‘board and lodging’ costs for kidnap victims are even more
expensive than staying at a five-star accommodation in the Philippines
Julie Alipala in Zamboanga City
Philippine Daily Inquirer
I
20
f the payments of ransom
for the release of Filipino
broadcast journalist Ces
Oreña-Drilon, her two cameramen and a peace advocate
were true, then their stay
in the jungles of Sulu is
more expensive than spending a
holiday at the high-priced resort
like Amanpulo in Palawan.
Drilon and her crew and guide,
professor Octavio Dinampo, were
on their way to interview Abu Sayyaf
leader Radulan Sahiron when kidnapped on June 8.
The first to be freed by their captors was assistant cameraman Angelo
Valderama, following the payment
of ‘board and lodging fee’. The government admitted paying 100,000
peso (US$2,250) . But other sources
said the “fee” reached 2 million peso
($45,019.69), for a five-day stay inside
the forest of Sulu.
Immediately after Valderama’s release,
Amilasan Amilbahar, presidential adviser for Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, said
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
2 million pesos was paid as ransom.
Amilbahar said the money was “actually sourced from the pockets of the
negotiators, I was told that it came from
his negotiator (Indanan town mayor
Alvarez Isnaji) own campaign funds”.
But the day after the release, Amilbahar said he received reports that the
ransom paid for Valderama’s freedom
reached 5 million pesos ($112,000).
Whether it was 2 million pesos or 5
million pesos, Amilbahar said it was
still a “huge amount of money”.
Isnaji said only 100,000 peso was
paid as ‘board and lodging fee’.
Being an unwanted guest in the
jungles of Sulu could be more costly
than staying in a posh resort like
Amanpulo in Palawan where accommodation from the simple Treetop
Casila to the spacious four-bedroom
Nature Villa would cost from $655
to $2,830 a night.
The resort also offers a package deal
for Filipinos where a couple can stay
for four days and three nights in Beach
Casita for $1,550, with free champagne, a choice of breakfast and massage to guests.
Broadcast journalist and former kidnap victim Arlyn dela Cruz admitted
that ransom or board and lodging fee
was handed to her captors before she
was freed after 98 days of captivity in
the jungles of Indanan.
“I don’t know the amount, but I am
aware that money was given to my
captors. In the first days in captivity,
the kidnappers demanded 44 million
pesos ($989,000) but in the series of
negotiations, I heard it was reduced
to 10 million pesos ($225,000) . I
didn’t witness money exchanging
hands but I know I was freed because
of ransom,” she said.
Her accommodation consisted of
sleeping on cold earth with coconut
leaves as mattress.
“I came from a poor family. Maglulupa ang kinalakhan ko (My parents
are poor farmers) and I survived my
days eating banana cue so when I was
in the jungle, food was not a problem. I
ate anything,” she said.
She learned a lot during her captivity. She said she was able to mingle
with her captors and shared their
culinary expertise by modifying their
usual recipes of pancakes locally
known as ‘apam-apam’.
If resorts, although far from urban
centers, offered wifi services, Dela Cruz
said during her captivity, low-end
mobile phones served “as the regular
line of communication to her family,
friends and employers”.
“They used my cellular phone and all
the names in the phone they contacted
to demand ransom. I guess thousands
of pesos were spent for loads and
cards,” Dela Cruz recalled.
And, Dela Cruz said, they had to
look for ‘signal’ so they could use the
mobile phone. “We had to climb uphill
for about 45 minutes to search for signal, and another 45 minutes to return
to where they kept me.”
There was also no VIP treatment for Dela Cruz, who said she
was treated like an animal, and was
even placed in a shallow pit.
And there were no two-piece swimsuits for the ‘guest’ journalist. Dela
Cruz said her abductors gave her some
clothing, “mostly male garb and clothes
and these were ukay-ukay (secondhand clothes)”.
AFP/RAFFY LERMA/PHILIPPNE DAILY INQUIRER
CHECKING OUT: Freed television journalist Cecilia ‘Ces’
Drilon, (R) together with cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion
and university profefssor Octavio Dinampo (not in photo)
accompanied by journalists arrives at a military camp
in Jolo island in southern Philippines after they were released by the Abu Sayyaf.
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
21
Supersize
Business
Workers are seen on a construction site in Ha Noi.
22
HOANG DINH Nam/AFP
CONSTRUCTION BOOM:
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
ed Ha Noi
Viet Nam rams through plans to supersize its capital
but critics slam the move as ill-timed, given the
country’s economic woes
Roger Mitton in Ha Noi
The straits times
V
iet Nam is embarking on
an ambitious plan to almost quadruple the size
of its capital despite reservations, even among
members of the ruling Communist Party,
about the move.
The scheme to ‘supersize’ Ha Noi
has been criticised as unnecessary,
ill-conceived and a distraction from
the urgent need to tackle the nation’s
severe economic downturn.
Viet Nam is in the throes of its
worst economic slump in decades
with its stock market in free fall, a
banking and currency crisis, inflation
hitting 25 per cent and growing strike
action by workers across the country.
Said lawyer Nguyen Tran Bat,
chairman of Investconsult, one of
Viet Nam’s major business advisory
groups: “The project to expand Ha Noi is illogical, poorly
thought out and wrong. It is just
a bad decision at a bad time.”
Added Nguyen Thanh Ha,
a Ha Noi construction company executive: “I don’t understand why the government
spends all this time and effort
discussing the size of Ha Noi
when it should be solving our
economic problems.”
Under the plan, the capital’s
borders will grow 3.6 times and
its population will double to 6.2
million, making it bigger than
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
But it has drawn such strong
opposition that no fewer than
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
six ministers were dispatched to the
National Assembly to try to argue its
merits—with little success.
“You mean, Ha Noi has already
used up its entire 920 sq km?”
asked assemblywoman Nguyen
Thi Tuyen sarcastically.
Deputy Ngo Van Hung doubted if
Ha Noi could be turned into a cultural
and international entrepot so easily,
saying: “I’m afraid we will not have a
Ha Noi that meets all these expectations by this time next century.”
When ministerial cajoling failed, a
scheduled May 23 vote on the measure had to be cancelled. As a compromise, the regime agreed to delay
implementation of the plan from July
1 to Aug 1 and focus more attention
on fighting inflation.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
personally went to the legislature to
answer complaints that his government had not properly explained the
plan’s rationale, its financial cost, nor
its social and cultural impact.
He conceded that an earlier
presentation was flawed, but argued that supersizing Ha Noi will
make it a “cultural, political and
economic centre’ equal to other
great cities in the region—and
even resorted to feng shui.”
Said Dung: “Ha Noi will lean
against the Ba Vi Mountains and
face the Hong River. It will be stable
in the curling-dragon-crouchingtiger position.”
Despite the continued criticism,
however, there was never any doubt
that the regime’s plan would be approved. When the debate finally ended, a majority of deputies - all either
party members or affiliated with the
party—swallowed their qualms and
voted for the proposal.
But concerns about the scheme and
its timing remain.
Said Dr Truong Thai Son, a director
of Hoang Quan Real Estate Corp in
Ho Chi Minh City: “Yes, the National Assembly finally approved
it, but I’m still worried about
how the government can control
the funds to implement it.”
The protracted opposition
and forceful way it was expressed have also fuelled perceptions that Dung’s team has
been weakened by the ongoing
economic crisis.
It has become so severe that
respected financial institutions like Goldman Sachs,
Morgan Stanley and Deutsche
Bank have voiced concern that
an International Monetary
Fund-style rescue package
may be needed.
23
THANIS SUDTO/The Nation
COURTESY OF SHU UEMURA
Business
Making Over
Japan
Shu Uemura fetes 25 years of the ‘open
atelier’ that allows shoppers to try out
makeup without the help of a salesperson
Kumi Matsumaru in Tokyo
The Daily Yomiuri
O
n June 19, 1983, makeup
artist Shu Uemura opened
the first cosmetics boutique
bearing his name on Tokyo’s
Omotesando, simultaneously
defining the ‘open atelier’ display
style. Now, a quarter of a century
later, this method has become the
norm for the industry.
Each line’s wide variety of products at Shu Uemura Beauty Boutique stood out against the relatively
subdued competition. The refined,
modern packaging design and the
availability of brushes and palettes
also helped to define the brand’s
appeal among the general public.
In addition to celebrating Uemura’s
breakthrough approach to the marketing of cosmetics, the recent ‘Shu
Uemura Exhibition—Opening the
Atelier After 25 Years’ at Roppongi,
Tokyo’s Mori Arts Centre Gallery, also
coincided with the June 19 birthday of
the auteur, who died of pneumonia in
December at the age of 79.
The retrospective exhibition explores the history of the brand, which
24
is one of Japan’s first cosmetics firms
named after a make-up artist known
for innovation. Now sold in 18 countries, women around the world—not
just Japan—have come to know the
name of Shu Uemura.
The makeup line also has become
a staple in fashion magazines. The
February issue of Vogue, for example,
focused on two of the brand’s pressed
eye shadow colours—Spring Breeze
and Pristine Green—for its special on
spring cosmetics.
Uemura began working as a makeup
artist in Hollywood in the mid-1950s,
making a name for himself when he
worked with Shirley MacLaine in her
1962 film, My Geisha.
Asked to fill in for MacLaine’s
makeup artist, who had become ill,
Uemura was praised for his success in
giving the popular actress Asian features for her role as a geisha. He continued working for other Hollywood
actresses and big-name stars such as
Frank Sinatra.
“Coming back to Japan after this
experience, Uemura began teaching
younger makeup artists how to apply
cinematic makeup, a technique that
was new to Japan. During his ten-
ure, Uemura realised his students
were fascinated not only with the
techniques they were learning
but also the cosmetics he had
brought back with him,” Shu Uemura spokeswoman Kanae Makino
told The Daily Yomiuri.
“Uemura saw the fun his students
were having with the wide range
of beauty products,” Makino continued, “and eventually decided
to open his own boutique in the
hope of sharing this pleasure with
consumers at large.
“He thought, with the ‘open-tester style’, in which people freely try
makeup—a method now standard
for many cosmetic companies, but
not at that time—consumers would
no longer be hindered from finding
the pleasure and freedom of choosing their own cosmetics.”
Uemura also introduced to Japan’s
industry the sale of non-cosmetic items
such as brushes and makeup cases,
something that had been hitherto
available only to professionals.
“Uemura believed good makeup
kits are necessary for good makeup,”
Makino said.
Makino said one brushmaker recently told her that it was Uemura who
changed the status of makeup brushes
in Japan as he brought the instruments
into the spotlight, making them more
than mere supporting actors.
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Somkiet Vantanavijan/The Nation
The brand’s line of high quality
brushes include materials such as sable, goat and pony hair.
Nowadays, it is Shu Uemura’s
eyelash curlers that are causing a
stir among the fashion conscious.
Some people may even remember
that this product was mentioned
by name in last year’s chick-flick
The Devil Wears Prada.
Uemura also questioned the marketing concept of each season promoting
a single make-up style for everyone,
regardless of individual characteristics—an approach adopted by the large
cosmetics companies.
This belief is clear in Mode Makeup,
a collection of make-up concepts that
he began releasing in 1968.
The first work in the long-running
series featured eye shadow applied in
a checkerboard design, called Flaggy.
“At the time,” Makino said, “colourASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
ful prints and patterns
were in style, so Uemura
thought, ‘Why can’t you
have fashion on your
eyelids, too?’”
In later years, Uemura became involved in
a series explaining how
to apply make-up for
the stage. “He wanted
to bring what usually is
done backstage out into the open. He
was a real pioneer in the arena of cosmetics,” Makino said.
‘Shu Uemura Exhibition—Opening
the Atelier After 25 Years’ is be divided
into three categories.
The first section is dedicated to
the Shu Uemura product range, including 108 different colours of eye
shadow and 96 colours of lipstick.
The colour variation, which is updated according to season, is what
the company is known for.
“Karl Lagerfeld was so impressed
with the range of colour and texture
that he always uses Shu Uemura eye
shadow when sketching his designs,”
Makino continued.
Two of Lagerfeld’s drawings are on
display in the second section of the
exhibition. One of the works—presented to Uemura in 2006 during
an interview with French Vogue—
features a woman in a white outfit
and black hat, with what appears
to be a Chanel signature bag. The
other shows a soft-lined portrait of
a woman. Each of the drawings has
been highlighted with gentle colours
from the Shu Uemura line.
In the final section of the show are
15 panels featuring Uemura’s Mode
Make-up series, including Flaggy. Also
on display is Rebirth, the last work in
the series the make-up artist produced
before his death. The makeup design
features a clean, fresh look using hues,
including yellow and green.
“The photo shoot wrapped up last
summer,” Makino said. “It seems appropriate that he named the work Rebirth. He was always innovating and
eager to do something new.”
In addition to the panels, the exhibit
includes 10 masks that have been applied with Shu Uemura colours.
Also on show is a short film made
in collaboration with the cosmetics
maker. Featured are creations made
by Atsuko Fukushima, Shinji Kimura
and Koji Morimoto, all based on the
concept of ‘stimulation’.
This month, Shu Uemura will release a limited run of its cleansing
oil in packaging bearing characters
from the film.
While many people associate Shu
Uemura with colour, the company,
according to Makino, places emphasis on skincare products, the most
important item of which is cleansing
oil. “As a make-up artist, Uemura was
adamant that you couldn’t wear your
makeup beautifully unless your skin
is clean. He stressed the importance
of using the right cleanser or remover
for your skin,” she said. “He often
said, ‘Beautiful makeup starts with
beautiful skin,’ or ‘Makeup starts
and ends with cleansing.’”
In 1984, one year after the opening of the Omotesando store, Shu
Uemura began operations in Hong
Kong and opened its first overseas
outlet there the following year. In
1986, the company opened its first
foreign boutique in Paris.
While the brand’s market has expanded to include the United States,
Italy, Britain and 12 other countries,
Makino said Shu Uemura continue
to maintain the founder’s philosophy.
“We hope the exhibition will clearly
send the message that Shu Uemura
shops are your ‘atelier.’”
25
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP
Business
HIGH STREET: Luxury fashion
houses flagship shops (L-R)
Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Cartier
and Bulgari stand at a corner
of Tokyo’s Ginza district.
Boom In Asia,
Gloom Elsewhere
The way well-heeled Asians are shopping for luxury brands,
it would seem there is no oil price hike and slowdown
in economic growth in the rest of the world
Michelle Tay in Singapore
The Straits Times
T
he sale was on, and the shoppers came. So many turned
up that the queue outside the
Prada boutique in Singapore
was 30 deep on a Friday last
month.
The scene at the Paragon Shopping Centre bore out the optimism of
26
international luxury retailers who say
they are not only seeing a healthy turnover, but also expect Asian shoppers to
continue beating a path to their door,
never mind the price of petrol.
Many report double-digit growth
in the region this year and are aggressively expanding their presence.
Italian label Versace registered an
11.8 per cent jump in turnover from
January to March, and is now aiming
to make Asia its second-biggest market
in terms of turnover after Europe.
It is splashing 45 million euros
(US$70.5 million) on 11 stores in
the region.
Swiss luxury goods group Richemont
attributed its 9.8 per cent growth
in revenue for last year to strong
demand in the Asia-Pacific region,
particularly in China and Hong Kong,
where sales grew 21 per cent to 1.29
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
search of these items,” she said.
Industry players told The Straits
Times that shoppers here can still
splash out because their wealth
remains buoyant, thanks to wise
investments over the past two or
three boom years.
Christopher Kilaniotis, managing
director of Cartier for Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia, said:
“While inflation is a big threat, a great
number of people have earned solid
income from properties, shares and
other investments.
“Maybe the return on investments
has slowed a little, but this does not
mean you can’t afford something
you’ve always aspired to own, like a
new car or a watch.”
Sebastian Suhl, chief executive
of Prada Asia-Pacific, said strong
growth in Asia reflected the increasing wealth in the region.
A recent survey by Barclays Wealth
predicted that Singapore and Hong
Kong will have the highest concentration of wealthy households in the
world by 2017, with about 40 per cent
of households having assets of at least
S$1 million (US$733,000).
But not all top-end retailers interviewed by The Straits Times were uniformly upbeat about the state of the
industry and its prospects.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a director of a company distributing
luxury fashion labels here said that his
sales were healthy from late last year
until the Chinese New Year.
After that, sales dipped drastically as news of the US financial
turmoil sank in.
He added: “Stock-market investors
who invested heavily during the bull
run now have to endure the recent
volatile markets.
“I reckon many retailers are 10 per
cent to 30 per cent behind their sales
targets across all businesses.”
Dr Jannie Tay, president of the Singapore Retailers Association and vicechairman of The Hour Glass watch
chain, is also cautious.
“I don’t think we can expect to continue galloping the way we were. Maybe it’s time for a breather,” she said.
Economists believe the effects of the
slowdown in the US and Europe and
soaring petrol prices may eventually
hurt shoppers’ sentiment in Singapore.
But Dr Chua Hak Bin, Asian
strategist at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, thinks
rising affluence in China and India
still spells favourable conditions for
Asia’s luxury-goods market.
“Also, in terms of overall growth,
Asia just hasn’t been hit as badly as the
US and Europe,” he said.
Marketing consultant Mabel Tay,
45, would likely agree with that.
“My spending has never been affected by the economy because I always set
a budget for shopping,” she said. “But if
need be, I would cut down to, say, one,
instead of two, handbags.”
AFP
billion euros for the year.
Italian fashion label Prada told The Straits Times
that it has seen double-digit
growth in the Asia-Pacific
so far this year, though it
would not release details.
Ben Benjamin, brand manager for French fashion chain
Celine in Southeast Asia, said:
“We’ve seen no negative growth
quarter on quarter. January,
just before Chinese New Year,
and April were the best months
so far this year.”
Paragon Shopping Centre,
which has a concentration of international top-end labels, said
that total sales from the bluechip stores grew 13 per cent in
the first quarter, compared with
the same period last year.
Although slightly slower
than the year-on-year growth
of 20 per cent for the first
quarter of last year, the figure
still shows a healthy crowd of
big-spending shoppers.
This despite inflation hitting
a 26-year high of 7.5 per cent
and the retail sales index going
up 7.5 per cent in April from a
year ago—although the latter is
partly due to higher prices.
Strong sales in Asia are in
marked contrast to the scene in
the United States and Europe.
Italian chain Bulgari, for example, said
American sales suffered in the first
three months of the year and were soft
in Britain, Spain and Italy.
Retailers banking on the trend remaining strong here are opening large
stores, despite average monthly rents
in Orchard Road being at more than
S$45.45 (US$33) per sq ft, up from
S$36.88 (US$27) psf in early 2005.
When the new mall Ion Orchard
opens next year, Giorgio Armani,
Dolce & Gabbana and Prada will
have roughly 10,000 sq ft flagship
stores, with monthly rents at around
S$60 (US$44) psf.
American haute jeweller Harry Winston will open its first Southeast Asian
boutique there too, according to developer Orchard Turn Developments’
chief executive Soon Su Lin.
“The market for luxury jewellery
and timepieces is fast expanding in
Asia and connoisseurs from the region
and beyond are drawn to Singapore in
27
CHINA DAILY
Entertainment
Preparing
For Battle
The latest Chinese epic extravanganza
is inspired from ‘Romance of the Three
Kingdoms’ and marked with John Woo’s
artistic interpretation
Beijing
China Daily
J
ohn Woo is back. After
his glorious decade as
one of the most successful Chinese filmmakers in Hollywood, the
Face/Off and M:I2, the
maestro has returned to
depict a legendary battle
in Chinese history.
Named Red Cliff (Chi
Bi), the film revolves around a battle
in the year AD 208 between the allied
forces of the southern warlords Liu
Bei and Sun Quan, and the numerically superior forces of the northern
warlord Cao Cao. It was after this
battle the state of the Three Kingdoms
(AD220-280)—when China had three
rulers—was established.
The battle of Red Cliff in the context
of the story of the Three Kingdoms
28
has long been Woo’s dream; he spent
four years preparing the project before
shooting started last April.
“For me, the Red Cliff battle is a
story of the weak winning out over
the strong, which cannot be achieved
without Chinese intelligence, courage
and, most importantly, unity,” he tells
China Daily. “But these Chinese virtues are rarely seen in today’s wuxia,
or martial arts movies—the best perceived genre of Chinese films in international cinema.”
Making this film to reveal the Chinese people’s spiritual world has motivated the 62-year-old helmer to complete this US$80 million ($1 million
from his own pocket) extravaganza.
Chinese mainland actress Zhao Wei
stars as Sun Shangxiang in Red Cliff.
To this Asian director-in-chief, the
story of the Three Kingdoms is a canvas on which to draw his own picture.
The plot is faithful to history, but the
details are all Woo’s own.
In China and even around Asia, most
people’s understanding of the period
and its heroes come from the classic
novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms
(Sanguo Yanyi), a work of fiction based
on engaging history.
The biggest difference between
Woo’s version and the widely accepted
Romance is that of the relationship between Zhou Yu, counselor to Sun Quan
and Zhuge Liang, main advisor to Liu
Bei. In the novel, Zhou was portrayed
as a very stingy man, so jealous of
Zhuge’s supreme talent that the greeneyed man eventually died of jealousy.
Woo, however, thinks it was unlikely the two could have united and
achieved victory if they were so hostile
to each other. Historic records, moreover, support him in this assumption.
In his film, therefore, Zhou and Zhuge
admire each other and their friendship
helps the alliance win the war.
“I do not want to make tragic stories
anymore,” Woo says. “I’d rather make
films full of love and hope. I have seen
so many touching stories in China.
Children in the impoverished mountainous areas trying by all means possible to study; teachers devoting their
whole lives to educating them in shabJULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LION ROCK ENTERTAINMENT AND CHINA FILM GROUP
by schools; an old man helping poor
children get an education with donations from his paltry income collecting
garbage, and all those helping victims
of the earthquake”
Love and friendship is an eternal
theme in Woo’s works. He also believes
making every film is a process through
which to make new friends.
But Woo sustained a heavy blow
during preparations for Red Cliff, the
most energy-consuming film he has
ever made. His long-time friend and
lead actor Chow Yun-fat, who was
to play Zhou Yu, withdrew from the
role at the last minute. This caused
tremendous scheduling problems
and financial losses.
Woo made Chow an icon when
he cast him in the 1986 Hong
Kong classic A Better Tomorrow (Yingxiong Bense), but
the incident with Chow
does not change his belief in
friendship.
“God tells us to love all,
even the enemy,” the Christian director says. “So I have no
enmity at heart. I do have friends
who betrayed me or said harsh
words when I was
low, but I still
consider
them as
friends.
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
Remember your friends’ help and encouragement, and try to understand
them when they do something hurtful.”
Woo’s reward is the support of
new friends won purely through
care and sincerity.
He hired chefs from Shanghai and
Guangzhou to cook for the crew. The
Chinese cast and crew had been used
to working 15 hours a day, seven days
a week, but his crew had at least one
day, sometimes two, off each week, and
a 12-hour maximum working day. His
vice-director Zhang Jinzhan describes
him as “very caring and considerate”.
Most of Woo’s crew are from the
Chinese mainland; the rest are from
Hong Kong, Taiwan and
overseas. For Woo, the film
is not only a personal
dream come true, but
also a chance for young
Chinese talents to learn
new technologies in
the Hollywood way of
production.
“I find young people here very eager to
learn,” he says. “All
they need is an opportunity. Provided with
the right
chances,
they will
surely make very good films.”
Chinese staff impressed Woo with
their passion and ambition, making his first Chinese comeback a
touching experience.
“I am deeply moved by the Chinese
staff,” he says. “They may be not that
professional, but they are very hardworking, devoted and quick-witted.”
The nine-month shooting covered
the hottest and coldest seasons in
northern China. The foul weather and
complicated naval war scenes often
took five to six hours for each take.
“Someone was sick, some one else
was hurt, some wept, but no one complained,” Woo says. “They are very
dedicated with a sense of mission. I
deeply thank them. I believe with such
a devoted team, China can surely make
grand films as Hollywood does.”
The film’s Chinese version is split
into two episodes, each about two
hours long. The first part will premiere
on July 10. The international edition
runs for about 150 minutes and will
open in North America next year.
The experience of making this film
has made Woo decide to shift his focus to China in the coming years. His
next two-to-three directorial works
are actually all Chinese; they include
a love story set in 1949, the year the
Chinese People’s Republic of China
was established.
29
AFP
People
Love Guru
Wei Siang Yu is the key figure in
Singapore government’s move
to deal with the city-state’s
disturbingly low birth rate
Stevie Emilia in Singapore
The Jakarta Post
W
i t h h i s fl a m boyant figure,
stylish clothes
and his penchant for darkrimmed spectacles, one might
think Wei Siang Yu is a fashion designer or even an actor.
Only when he talks about his true
passion—life science and information
technology— with detailed clarity and
understanding, will people be convinced that he is a medical doctor with
a special affection for technology.
Meet Singapore’s love guru, aka Dr
Love, the key figure in Singapore government’s move to deal with the citystate’s disturbingly low birth rate.
And the doctor takes his job seriously, spreading love all around,
comforting restless minds and hearts
anywhere and at anytime.
With a smirk, he refers to Singaporeans’ love lives as “a little
bit robotic” but adds they are not
reluctant to openly discuss their
love lives in detail.
“They love to call me, get me on the
street, talk to me all the time. When
I go out, they come to me and sit me
down, asking about anything you can
think of,” Wei says.
30
But passion for his work does
not make him feel the questions
are nuisances or disruptions to his
private life. “It’s no problem, that’s
the life of Dr Love. I’m very passionate about my work.”
The 39-year-old did not shoot to
fame overnight.
The youngest of six children was already in love with everything relating
to biology when he was a child.
Proudly, he recalls how his pets,
from pythons to monkeys and dogs,
freely roamed his home.
He grew up with a desire to become a vet, but then changed his
mind, wanting to be a doctor instead, just like his sister.
Always a top student in his class,
Wei graduated with honours from
Monash Medical School in Australia back in 1995.
But a conventional career path
might have seemed less challenging
for his restless and creative mind,
making him decide to go against
the mainstream.
His decision made him the man he
is today, recognised worldwide and
featured in media headlines for his
creative inventions and works.
In 2001, he shot to fame when his
wireless health application provider
Meggpower launched a hormonal
monitoring service that would alert
a woman when she is due to ovulate
through text message.
He was also the first
to work with the Dutch
Health Promotion Board,
designing a wireless sex
education platform back
in 2002.
Wei says the project was
interesting because it targeted many young teenagers who did not read newspapers and did not watch
television, making it hard
for them to get news, including on sex education.
On the other hand, he
says the teenagers wanted
to remain anonymous—
free from the judgments
of parents, teachers and
even doctors.
“They couldn’t walk
in into a clinic and ask
questions, they want to
SMS,” he says about the
programme where doctors personally replied to sex questions
by text message. A similar hotline was
then also introduced in Singapore.
From then on, his unconventional
career path all spells love.
He launched iBoat—a cruise taking
couples founding it difficult to have
children, on board a ‘love boat’ to
a luxury resort with baby-making
as the sole purpose.
He organised a baby-planning
camp together with the Singaporean
government, started an ‘edutainment’ reality TV show called Dr
Love’s Super Baby-Making Show,
published Love Airways magazine
and set up a Dr Love hotline.
Running a conventional medical
practice was not on his mind: He was
fully aware that his busy schedule,
constantly on the go and flying to
different parts of the world, would
not be fair to his patients.
After recently launching his new
multimedia platform Fly Free For
Health, which combines health care
and lifestyle services, Wei is currently working on the production of Dr
Love’s new TV show. Under the plan,
the show will be rolled out by one of the
biggest TV outfits, Freemantle Media,
which produces the Idol series.
“We’re waiting for the format to mature and then we’ll take the next step,”
says the youngest nominee of a 2003
CNN People’s Choice Award.
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Cream Of Voices
For the ‘Miss Saigon’ star, being over 30 means
higher expectations, higher satisfaction
Koh Young-aah in Seoul
The Korea Herald
T
hirty-seven-year-old Lea
Salonga looked young
for her age sitting at an
outdoor
garden
restaurant in
Seoul recently.
“When you live with a
two-year-old daughter,
you start to think like
her,” the Filipino musical star told The Korea
Herald. “She is incredibly inspiring and nothing is more important
than her.”
Salonga gave a performance in Seoul on
June 16, though she has
a tight schedule rehearsing for the musical Cinderella back in Manila.
“It’s my first time visiting Seoul and I wish
I was going to be here
longer,” she said.
Prior to the concert,
Salonga said she was
excited but did not know
what to expect from the
Korean audience. “Since
Seoul is a place that’s
an untried territory
for me, I can’t expect
what it is going to be
like ... I’m especially
worried about the language barrier, since I
will be singing entirely in English,”
she said. “I will try to put as much
emotion as I can in my voice and
hope the audience catches it.”
Among her many achievements as
a singer/actress, the first thing most
people think of when they hear her
name is that she was the first Kim in
the British musical Miss Saigon.
“I’ll take the debt of gratitude for
that piece until the day I die,” Salonga
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
said. “It was really what kick-started
everything more than anything.”
Salonga began in theatre and showbiz as a child and had been building
a solid career in her homeland when
she got her big break at 18. The British
producers of Miss Saigon had failed to
find an Asian face and voice for Kim’s
character in their own land and were
scouring other countries.
When the producers heard Salonga
sing in a Manila audition, they said,
from her first note, that they had found
a potential Kim.
But even when Miss Saigon opened
and became a huge success, Salonga
said she did not know that it was go-
ing to be her ticket to her global fame.
“I thought the success was going to be
temporary and thought of going to
drama school after that,” she said. “But
later, I heard the news that I was going
to Broadway and that was probably the
happiest moment of my life.”
Besides Miss Saigon, Salonga also
gained fame throughout the world
by being the singing voice of Mulan
and Jasmine in Disney’s hit films
Mulan and Aladdin.
“The casting director of Aladdin left
me a note while I was doing Miss Saigon. After listening to my demo, I was
recording A Whole New
World with the 75-piece
orchestra.”
With a couple of albums released, Salonga
is a singer and musical
actress. “I get to sing
in musicals, so that incorporates the two, but
singing is more fun in
a musical theatre when
you get paid to play pretend,” she said.
“But albums are good
because they record
and preserve the songs
pretty much forever, as
opposed to musicals
which are preserved in
the audience’s memory, unless I look up the
Youtube bootlegs.”
Salonga started performing at seven when
she played a part in the
Philippine version of the
musical The King and I.
“I was fearless and acting
was more fun then,” Salonga remembered. “Now
that I’m over 30, the
stakes and expectations
are higher and therefore
there is more pressure.
But the satisfaction level
is much higher as well.”
The actress has also won numerous
awards including the Tony award.
Salonga said she has no idea what
makes her voice so appealing. “I just
try to be clear, truthful, honest and
forthright, while concentrating on the
lyrics and trying to be in tune.”
“My ultimate goal is to just continue to do this and, hopefully even
after 40, I will have a long life as a
singer,” Salonga said.
31
Beijing Olympics
32
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
Hot Stuff
If the catwalks in Beijing are
any indication, the hottest trend
for the season is anything that
has to do with the Olympics
Beijing
China Daily
ASIANEWS • JULY 4-10, 2008
CHINA DAILY PHOTOS
COUNTDOWN
35
(July 4)
DAYS
T
he recent China International Fashion Week held
in Beijing looked like an advance party for the Olympics in August. Designs were not only influenced
by Chinese arts and culture like ancient Chinese
calligraphy, there were Olympic-themed patterns
that livened up the show.
An Olympic-themed strapless gown in scarlet featuring
the logo of the Games and Chinese characters saying “success for the Beijing Olympics” nearly stole the limelight.
More than 500 models presented nearly 40 collections
of almost 30 fashion brands.
33
BANGKOK
We Will Rock You
T
he longest-running musical to play at
the Dominion, one of the West End’s
largest theatres, ‘We Will Rock You’ will
blast into Bangkok. It is a new breed of
musical; a unique collaboration between
Queen—the legends of rock—and one
of Britain ‘s most successful playwrights
and comic genius, Ben Elton.
The enormous scale, size and cost
of the show makes it one of the biggest musicals ever staged. Guaranteed to give electrifying rock theatre
experience.
PURI, INDIA
Rath Yatra Festival
T
he 12th-century temple town of Puri, considered one of the four holiest sites
in India, transforms into a sea of ecstatic devotees from all over the subcontinent.
The image of the Hindu God Krishna is taken out for a huge procession to Jaganath temple. His image is accompanied by those of his brother, Balarama, and sister, Subhadra—all of which are placed in three giant yellow chariots or raths drawn
by pilgrims. In earlier years, devotees were known to have thrown themselves under
the wheels of the rath in the hope of obtaining instant salvation.
When: July 4
Where: Jagannath Temple
Info: www.rathyatra.net
The Dalai Lama’s
Birthday
Togo Shrine Markets
F
rom dawn onwards, locals browse
through old plates, folk arts, traditional dolls and junk with the shrine
as a backdrop. From cheap curios and
collectables to real antiques, there’s
almost nothing that you can’t find if
you’re willing to put in the time and effort searching.
TANJAY, PHILIPPINES
T
he 14th Dalai Lama’s
home town of Dharamsala celebrates his birthday
in fine style.
The site of the Tibetan government-in-exile stages special temple services, musical
performances, feasts and
seminars throughout the day.
The spiritual leader of Tibetan Budhhism and former political head of Tibet was exiled to
India in 1950.
War and Peace
S
inulog de Tanjay is a street dancing
with mock battles between Moros
and Christians followed by reconciliation
through the intercession of the patron
Señor Santiago. This is an old tradition that began with old men engaged
in swordplay and dancing from house to
house.
AFP
34
TOKYO
When: July 6 & 27
Where: Jingumae
Opening Hours: 5am-3pm
DHARAMSALA, INDIA
When: July 6
When: July 12-27
Where: Muangthai Ratchadalai Theatre, 4F Esplanade Shopping Centre,
Ratchadapisek Road
Tickets: 1,000-4,000 baht (US$30$120)
Info: +66 (0) 2262 3456,
[email protected]
When: July 24
Where: Tanjay, Negros Oriental
Info: +63 35 5270488
JULY 4-10, 2008 • ASIANEWS
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