Newbie - Bougainvillea restyle need advise

I am a newbie here and I need your advise on the restyle of my bougainvillea. The trunk is about 40 cm tall and the middle of the trunk were being attack by ants which made a hole to the bottom of the trunk.
I intend to cut the trunk down as shown in the photo.

Here is the photo, sorry I do not know I did it right or not

Maybe I don't understand your pics but it looks like you plan to cut off the leader that has great movement and ramification? Why?

I just want to shorten the tree trunk and develop the two area after cutting.

So you are thinking somthing like this:

2017-11-10_01-32-09 by BrendanR2012, on Flickr


2017-11-10_01-30-08 by BrendanR2012, on Flickr

My problem with that is the trunk becomes quite taperless.  It has nice detail, but it just suddenly becomes a cut off tree as opposed to a tree that grew small with taper.  I almost always say cut it short, but maybe not here?  




I don't think you lose anything if you carve away all of the deadwood and get taper from the base to the long leader:

2017-11-10_01-33-05 by BrendanR2012, on Flickr





I'd be trying for this:

2017-11-10_01-28-47 by BrendanR2012, on Flickr

Yes BrendanR, I just want the pic like this.

Like the pic on 2017-11-10 _01-32-09.
Thanks a lot

BrendanR, Thanks for your advice, I have mostly Ficus, Adenium and Wrightia Religiosa.
I have just post one of my ficus on the members tree section. Hope you like it.

I have made a cut on the trunk and shorten it. Here is a photo.

Nice job.  Now perhaps wire the branches into better positions?  They are too close together?

I might suggest taking the long straight one in the middle and bending it downwards so that it emphasises the movement in the trunk:


2017-11-23_12-41-03 by BrendanR2012, on Flickr

Thanks BrendanR, I will be doing some wiring works the next few days. I will also cut some of the top inside part of the tree trunk to make it looks more taper.