Choose one of the two questions below: a. Describe your most valued accomplishment and explain why you view it as such OR b. Describe a time when you failed. What did you learn from that failure? How has that failure made you better equipped for the future? [300-word limit]

My most valued accomplishment is achieving mission success with my Battalion in a military exercise.

Our mission was to provide command and control, communication and computer (C4) support to my higher headquarters to conduct and control the exercise, which was held overseas in an area spanning 100km by 150km. Weather was hot and dry in the day and cold at night, especially in the mountains. The exercise lasted 2½ weeks. I led a total of 100 active and operationally-ready servicemen.

We achieved mission success with timely establishment of the C4 networks. My Battalion had zero traffic and disciplinary breaches. My soldiers’ morale were high throughout the exercise. During the post-exercise review, the director of exercise singled us out for our excellent performance.

I value this the most because I have achieved it by applying skills I learnt. For mission success, I conceptualized the plan and strategized the employment of my assets for optimal coverage in the vast area. I supervised the execution and empowered my subordinates to make ground decisions. This allowed me to focus on planning subsequent operations and engaging higher headquarters.

The espousal of values such as leadership, discipline, professionalism and care for soldiers helped to achieve zero traffic and disciplinary breaches. I constantly reminded my commanders to lead their men well, take care of their safety, enforce man and system discipline and execute their tasks professionally.

Applying people and logistics management skills, my soldiers’ morale were kept high throughout, including those in the mountains. I amplified their importance in the exercise by having senior commanders visit them. We delivered hot food to them regularly to keep them warm.

We learnt from past exercises, avoided making repeated mistakes, and adopted good practices. This helped to shorten our learning curve.

In summary, I value this the most because I see the fruition of my personal development and learning.
Name one current issue (economic / social / political) that Asia is facing and identify a couple of strategies that you feel may adequately address the issue. [300-word limit]

Widening inequality is one current issue Asia faces. Income disparities are rising strikingly, where the richest 1% of households account for 6% to 8% of total income. Nearly 20% of total income went to the wealthiest 5% in most countries. Conclusively, the richest households’ share of income has increased over time. China, India and Indonesia, countries that have powered Asia’s economic growth, have seen increased Gini coefficient.

Widening inequality threatens the sustainability of growth. It can curb medium-term growth by fueling social and political instability, undermining the quality of governance and increasing pressure for troubling populist politics.

Technological progress, globalization and market-oriented reform are the key drivers of Asia’s growth, but are also the causes of the inequality. The opportunities created by technology and magnified by trade and market-oriented reform have created a growing demand for skilled labour and raised their earning’s premium. The abundance of labour has depressed wages and capital has benefited disproportionately. Locations with superior infrastructure, market access, and scale economies have also benefited more.

Asian governments must focus on policies for reducing inequality without stunting growth. These include more employment-friendly growth, more targeted fiscal policies and a better geographical distribution of wealth. Employment-friendly growth can be promoted through creating quality jobs, upgrading workers’ skills, and supporting medium and small sized enterprises for more balanced growth. Targeted fiscal policies include spending more on education and health, developing and spending more on better-targeted social protection schemes, and reducing or eliminating general price subsidies and compensating the poor by targeted transfers. Better geographical distribution of wealth can be achieved by improving transport and communications infrastructure and networks between developed and poor regions.

Developing Asia has made great strides in reducing poverty, but widening inequality undermines that success. Asia’s governments need to do more to share the success more widely.

“Rampant consumerism (seeking material goods without the ability to afford them) is one of the main causes for the current global economic crisis. Restraining consumerism remains a key task for developed countries like the US and Western Europe.” What are your views? [300-word limit]

Rampant consumerism is but only one of the minor contributing factor to the current global economic crisis. Restraining it is not a key task then, because the developed Western nations’ consumption has inevitably reduced due to wealth reduction, economic insecurity and austerity associated with the crisis.

The genesis of the current crisis, the biggest since the 1930s, is from the collapse of the US sub-primes market in 2008. To counter the recessionary effects of the “dot-com” bubble and “9-11” terrorist attacks, the US Federal Reserves maintained low interest rates to boost consumption and investment. People in US started borrowing heavily to finance their properties and banks lent without stringent checks on the borrowers’ credibility. This high consumption caused assets to gain value. High inflation then sets in and banks tighten their monetary policy. The interest rates shot up and people started to default on their payments, resulting in banks having high risk of default. Eventually the property bubble burst, causing the bankruptcy of some financial institutions like Lehman Brothers.

The current crisis in Western Europe is simply a continuation of the crisis in US, with the same essential cause. At the core of the crisis is Greece, whose debt crisis has its origins as far back as 2002 when it made widespread economic reforms to join the Euro. Public spending then increased massively, financed by loans undertaken from other sovereign states. This increase in spending, however, did not commensurate with any increased taxation revenues. In fact, tax revenues continuously declined due to massive tax evasion. The problem was so severe that eventually Greece’s revenues would not be able to service their debt commitments such as paying interests. Greece was then pounded with high interest by its panicky creditors which further worsen its crisis. The other Western Europe countries, especially Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain, face the same crisis, albeit at a lower intensity.

The key task then, is for the Western European countries to cut their excess spending while at the same time, effecting necessary structural reforms to boost productivity, competitiveness and potential growth.