UiTM IV

During this past weekend, from the 10th to the 11th of October, I participated in the UiTM intervarsity debate competition. Using the British Parliamentary format (the gist: one debate consisted of four teams of two debaters each- two government teams vs. two opposition teams), we debated on hot topics such as the 1Malaysia F1 Team and the Taliban. For the debate, I partnered with my coursemate Zuhri, whereas my previous partner from the MMU Ramadhan IV, Shafiq, partnered with Kamal, a Med. student. I'd show you pics, but I didn't take any. xD

For the competition, all teams had to participate in the four preliminary rounds, after which team points would be added up and the top-16 teams would move on to the knockout rounds.

The motions for the preliminary rounds were:

This House Believes That Western Liberal Democracies should ban the use of face veils.
This House Would Arm Local Militias To Fight The Taliban
This House Would Not Support the 1Malaysia F1 Team
This House Would Legalize Porn That Depicts Rape

For the finals, the motion was:

This House Would Do Away With Vernacular Schools

(I can't remember the motions for the quarter-finals and the semi-finals. They had something to do with Israel and Iran's nuclear facility, and some other issue. :D)

I had an amazing time! Debate competitions are good avenues to develop your debating skills, network and socialise, as well as gain experience. All of which I feel I managed to do; especially since my input during the 15 minute prep has improved since my previous tournament and I finally don't feel like a social retard during tournaments. Hurrah!

The most memorable debate for me was definitely the 1Malaysia F1 debate. The reason it was so memorable was because we were totally beaten up and screwed by the other teams. Compared to them, our arguments were simplistic! The best parts were when our seniors from the main campus (Meor and Faiz), stood up to give their speeches. During their individual speeches, they were amazing and scathing to the point that we felt our intelligence level was super low.

Memorable, indeed.

In the end though, Zuhri and I didn't manage to pass through the preliminary rounds (sorry, Zuhri!). A UiTM team managed to come out as champions (although I thought the IIUM team should've won. I could be biased though. :D), which definitely pleased the home ground.

All in all, I had a good time. :) With one debate-filled weekend over, I'm now looking ahead to this coming weekend where the main campus will be holding selections for the Royal Malaysian Intervarsity Debating Championship. I'm hoping to at least qualify for the junior category.

Wish me luck! :D