Kartika Anindya, University of Indonesia
For some, it was a chance to learn. For others, it was an opportunity to expand their networks. For all, it was a competition to win. The 13th All-Asian Intervarsity Debating Championships were held from May 6-14 in Langkawi, Malaysia, and delegates from the English Debating Society University of Indonesia (EDS-UI) were privileged to participate.
The All-Asians is a very prestigious international competition for debaters, gathering prominent universities from the entire Asian region. This year, 85 teams from all over Asia, such as Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Thailand, took part.
Indonesia itself sent three teams -- two from University of Indonesia and one from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.
The committee of the University Putra Malaysia (UPM) made it clear that this year was going to be a revolutionary All-Asians. For starters, it was held on the tropical island of Langkawi, located off the west coast of peninsular Malaysia. This was a refreshing alternative to the previous competitions that were usually held on a university campus. The overall relaxed image was done to balance the mentally and physically exhausting eight-day event.
However, the All-Asians still followed the standard mechanisms of international debating competitions. First there were eight preliminary rounds held in three days. All teams debated in all eight rounds, with the number of victories determining each team's ranking. At the end of the third day, only the top 16 teams went into the final rounds, where the elimination process really takes place. Whoever lost was out of the competition, as the event worked its way to the top two teams for the Grand Final.
Nonetheless, it was not necessarily the end for the teams not making it to the top 16. Teams from countries where the mother tongue is not English had a chance to compete in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) debating competition. For those who had enough of debating, there was also a public speaking competition.
It was a grueling championship from start to finish. Preliminary rounds featured about 250 people frantically discussing their arguments, roaming the hallways and dominating the elevators. These are people who love to talk and have been well trained to do so. Miraculously, no non-debater hotel guests were disturbed by this madness.
Indonesia successfully made its mark in the competition, earning its best showing since first participating in the event in 1997. A team from University of Indonesia, consisting of Donny Eryastha, Adisty Ikayanti and Astrid Kusumawardhani, managed to not only make it out of the preliminary rounds, ranking fifth out 86 teams, but also went through to become a quarterfinalist in the main competition. The second team from UI, consisting of Vega Ramadhan, Verdinand and Kartika Anindya, made it to the semifinal of the EFL debating competition. Kartika also went on to be a finalist in the Public Speaking Competition.
But as any competition goes, when the Grand Final was held on the night of May 13, all of the participants came round to watch the debate between Multimedia University (MMU) from Malaysia and Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (RVCE) from India.
On the motion of ""This house would cut American military spending"", both teams showed their finesse by giving innovative and strong arguments, mixed with brutal attacks to crumble the case of their opponents. One felt sorry for the adjudicators who had to determine the winner, as both teams proved their excellence.
In a split decision of five to four, MMU was declared the winner of the debate and the Grand Champion of the 2006 All-Asians. They received a prize of 10,000 Malaysian ringgit, while the runner-up RVCE received 4,000 Malaysian ringgit. All of the prize money was courtesy of CIMB, the event's main sponsor.
For the EFL competition, Chulalongkorn from Thailand came out as champion and the University of Tokyo was the runner-up. Both teams also received prize money. As for the Public Speaking Competition, Fey Sarah from Universiti Teknologi Mara was the winner.
Thus the competition came to an end. Networks were built as the last trophies and the first contact cards were handed out. This was a very memorable competition, obviously a great place for debaters to improve themselves and observe the performance of other countries. As a final note, the 2006 All-Asians successfully fulfilled the popular demand of an Asian tropical island: the seafood was impeccable.
