Saturday, April 21, 2007
-LETS DEBATE-
I have been debating since form3, but am still a rookie. But two of my classmates (Samuel and Joshua) and I bravely took part in the second annual Swinburne World Schools Debating Championship on Wednesday to Friday (18 to 20 April 2007) at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus. Each participant had to pay RM25 to enter the competition, and each school is allowed to send two teams. Being from Kch Town No.1, we don't have a lot of money, so we only sent one team, and the school paid for us. Other participating schools were SM Lodge (two teams), SM Chung Hua Middle School No.1, SMK St Joseph, SMK St Thom (two teams), SM Sains Kuching (two teams), and SMK Green Road (two teams). Swinburne also had one team in. The Swing Team, who were junior debaters. Each team had to go through five preliminary rounds, whether win or lose. It was a three day thing, so I'll take you down memory lane day by day, just like my previous post.
DAY 1
On the day of the debate, I was really freaking out because we didn't have enough points for most of the topics layed out. This is no lie when I say that I was the only person to think, research and scout for points. Useless as they are, Samuel and Joshua didn't even bother and threw the whole thing to me. I was really panicking, mind you, the topics given weren't easy. When we got there in the afternoon, it started of with registration and photo-taking session. I was surprised to see Morgan from Lodge. When I walked up to him, he looked blur, obviously trying to remember who I am. But he did in the end. Haha. Then the Chief Adjudicator Mr Abdul Latiff gave us a talk on what debating is and who to debate. After that, we had the privillage of watching the committes of the Swinburne Debate Club in action. It was thrilling to see their style and learn a lot from them. Especially the way the rejected the POI's: "Please sit down, your chair misses you/Please warm up your chair." Very witty. After the demonstration, it was our turn to debate. Fortunately, each debate took place in a room, so there were no other audience to watch us fail miserably. At first, we were up against SM Sains, and the motion was This House Should Tax Fast Food. We were on the government side. It was nerve-wrecking. Sam didn't even pass 6 minutes, which was frustrating because Joshua and I had already helped him elaborate the points. In the end we lost. It was a spilt decision. Our teacher told us that one of the adjudicators was previously from SM Sains and our opponents were her students. She was the decider, and she confessed to my teacher saying, "I couldn't help it. They were my students before." So tell me what does this mean to you. Yes, we lost because of an adjudicator who has no moral values who favoured her students who weren't that good. Crap. We all finished quite late, and I reached home after 7pm.
DAY 2
I went back to Swinburne, still worried because of our lack of points. Our first round was against St Thom Team B (Daniel, John and Saravana), and the motion was This House Believes that Economic Development and Environmental Conservation Cannot Go Hand in Hand. This time, we were on the opposition team. Being the second speaker and Joshua the third, we had to put Sam forth as the first speaker because he does not know how to rebut points. So by being the first, he will not have to rebut many points given by the opposing team. This was where Joshua and I crashed. We focused to much on covering Sam and we didn't have time to manage ourselves. But anyway, the debate was tense, and when the adjudicators asked us to leave the room for them to make the verdict, we all went out, and started talking to the St Thom boys as though we had known each other for quite some time. From that point on, we became friends. And also with the other team from St Thom (Jared, Gabriel and Alvin). When we went into the room for our verdict, I was shocked to find out that we won by unanimous decision! One of the adjudicators (who was also the president of the Swinburne Debate Club) commented me on one of my answer for the POI given, saying that he liked the way I answered it. Haha. Well, truth be told, debating is not just about facts, statistic and records, its also about logic reasoning and commen sense. After that, we went against SM Lodge with the motion, This House Would Impletement A Complete Ban on the Selling of Cigarettes. We lost, of course. After lunch we had the fourth round which was an impromtu round and also a silent round. Surprisingly, we went against the same St Thom team, and the motion was, This House Believes that Traditional Music Should Not Be Modernised. And the committee said they will come up with an easy topic. Liars. Being in the opposition side again, we sat outside, trying to rack our brains (mine especially) for points and ideas. I kept thinking about one of the Malaysian artist that has modernised traditional Malay songs. At the very mention of Too Phat, the team from SM Sains (whom we lost to yesterday) heard it and said "Anak Ayam", which was one of the songs. Then we decided to share, and we sat a fair distance and told each other our points. Shhhh...... Haha. During the whole time we were debating, it wasn't as tense as it was in the previous rounds. I guess it's because our opponents were now our friends, and we kept signalling to each other and smilling to each other from across the room. They even sort of disturb me when I went up to deliver my speech. Haha. At one point the whole room was laughing their guts out because Sam sang the "Anak Ayam" song during his speech and made all sorts of funny noises. Haha. Then the Indian guy from the opposing team who was super funny, also mimicked Sam and the song. The adjudicators kept laughing, it was just fun. The new found friendship made it all the better. Since it was a silent round, the adjudicators did not reveal their verdict, so we left the room and went back into the lecture hall on the fourth floor. While walking, we all chatted and agreed with each other that tradisional music SHOULD be modernised! Obviously! Haha. Then we had another silent round, against the other team from SM Sains. The motion was, This House Would Expel Myanmar from ASEAN, and we the government team. Like I said, the topics layed out weren't easy. And among the three of us, I was the only who understood what was going on with Myanmar. I was really annoyed. But what to do? Haiz. After the debate, we went back to the lecture hall and chatted with the St Thom guys. We went home, convinced that we wouldn't break into the semi-finals, which would take a freaking miracle to do so. Haha.
DAY 3
This time, the trip back to Swinburne wasn't a big drag as it was the two previous days. While waiting outside the auditorium, I saw Henry. And Morgan, Henry and I chatted for a while. After that, I made my move into the auditorium to find that most of the schools were already there. The adjudicators announced who broke into the semi-finals. They were SMK Green Road Team A and B, SM Lodge Team A (Morgan's group) and last but not least, St Thom Team A (Jared's group). We were so happy! (1: We don't have to debate anymore; 2: Our friends made it, of course happy lo) Haha. St Thom went against SMK Green Road Team A. The motion was... This House Would Reform the United Nations Security Council. OMG... This is the hardest topic ever! Jared and his teamates were on the opposition side, which is hard, really really hard. Before they left for the room, I offered Jared the points that I've searched for on the internet. The girl from Chung Hua did the same thing. Jared gratefully took it and went on his way. Haha. Kuching Town and St Thom has formed alliances. Be forewarned! Lolz. When the four teams left, the adjudicators announced the verdict for the fourth and fifth round. We lost both silent rounds. But it's ok though. Hehe. We then head for the cafeteria with the others from St Thom. After a while, we went to watch the semi finals between SMK Green Road Team A and St Thom Team A. The St Thom team A did their very best. Gabriel had a very erm, cute speaking style, what with all the hand gestures and facial expression. Lolz. But I have to give credit to the Green Road team. They were really good. They spoke lightning fast and can even pass 7 minutes! Amazing. After watching the semi, I went back to school to do some stuff. I then went back to Swinburne with Yu Full to watch the finals. By the time I got there, the two finalist (SMK Green Road team A and SM Lodge team A) had already left the room and gone to prepare. And the motion was, This House Believes that the Government Should Pay Qualified Women Who Chose to be Housewives. We hanged, ate, chatted and laugh our heads off with our friends from St Thom while waiting for the finalist to return. When they did, the debate was on. It was so heated and very close. I must say, Lodge team was very much better than the Green Road team. The people from Green Road were good. They had good points, but they just bore me to death. Lodge team however, clashed with them head on and their speeches were interesting. I remember the time one of the Green Road speakers said something so silly and so irrelevant. He said, "...watch Teletubbies in the morning and CSI at night." which was brilliantly rebutted by the Lodge team who were on the opposition side. Haha. Anyway, after the debate, the judges went to the second floor to discuss their verdict. When they came back, they didn't announce the winner on the spot. First, they gave out certificates of participation to everyone, and also gave out awards such as Top 10 Best Speaker, Best Debater, Most Promising Speaker and all that other stuff. Much to my very UN-surprise, our team won the Most Humourous Group, an award given to the team which made the adjudicators can't help themselves but laugh. Haha. Oh man. On to business now. And the winners of the Swinburne World Schools Debating Championship are ............ SM Lodge! I knew it! Haha. After that, we had a group photo outside the auditorium. After biding our goodbyes (well, I'll be seeing them next Tuesday), we went off with not just certficates in our hands, but with a handful of knowledge and experience that was an extreme privillage to have.
It was really fun. That might probably be the last time I join a debate competition. But hey, you'll never know what the future will bring.
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