By Puteri Balkish
GOMBAK, 2 November 2016: The IIUM debate team has scored yet another gold at this year’s Asian British Parliament (ABP) Debating Championship at Prasetiya Mulya Business School (BSD), Jakarta, in a competition perceived as the second most eminent.
As the icing on the cake, Dhaka-born Bangladeshi, Mubarrat Wassey, 25, a student of the Kuliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences and our very own locally bred, Ameera Natasha Moore, 23, a student of the Ahmad Ibrahim Kuliyyah of Law grabbed the first and second spot as overall best speakers.
The second team that was represented by Ahmad Syarifuddin Ahmad Fakhri and Sara Abdul Rahim also managed to be among the top ten best debaters of the championship.
The finalé witnessed a four-enclosed competition head to head against Singapore Management University (SMU), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Yale – NUS College (YNC).
The motion IIUM defended in the finals was ‘This house prefers a world where individuals, upon specific deliberate contemplation, know the outcomes of their choices.’
A total of 80 teams comprising two speakers took part in the competition with students from different universities all across the zone.
During the 7 Oct – 12 Oct tournament, after the motions were revealed, the teams were only given 15 minutes each to prepare with their defences and they were restricted from any external help, including electronic aid.
With the current victory, IIUM scored a hat-trick after winning other massive debating tournaments like the Australasian Inter-varsity Debate (Australs) in July and the United Asian Debate Championship (UADC) last June.
When asked regarding their aspirations, their target is to become champion of the World University Debate Championship (WUDC) which will be held in December at Thessaloniki, Greece. They will also be competing at the Oxford Inter-varsity Debate in Oxbridge next month.
Mubarrat Wassey said that the team will definitely be working hard to ensure that they secure the first place for the two coming debate championships. When enquired regarding their preparations, Ameera Natasha Moore said that once they know who they are paired with, a training will be conducted for weeks and they will have do a lot of reading, fact sheets and practise debates.
An appreciation ceremony was held on 31 October to celebrate their achievements where the President of IIUM, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais bin Yatim, attended and gave a short speech to congratulate the team.
As a token of appreciation, they were given incentives by the Presidential Trust Fund.
Lunch was served after that. ***
