Debate contest dominated by long-time rivals
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After more than 218 hours of debate involving 58 teams from 37 universities over five days, the Eighth Indonesian Varsity English Debate came down to a standoff between two long-time rivals: the University of Indonesia (UI), champions for six consecutive years, and the State Institute of Accounting (STAN), that broke UI's winning streak last year.
The topic of the debate, which was hosted by Bina Nusantara University in West Jakarta, was whether or not the government should uphold its ban on the adoption of the estimated 10,000 Acehnese tsunami orphans.
The UI team favored the ban, arguing that the government is currently preoccupied with reconstruction and relief efforts and thus should not divert its attention to adoption.
"Even in normal conditions, adoption takes time," argued 18- year-old Mahardhika Sajat, one of the three members of the UI team. "Adoption now will cause more harm later ... these are children who have experienced major trauma."
STAN, who had beaten the same UI team during the preliminaries, countered by saying that putting the children up for adoption was inevitable and it would be better to start the process now, rather than later.
"The government already has screening mechanisms in place," said STAN's Nidya Hapsari, 20. "Even before the tsunami a waiting list of eligible foster parents existed."
Faced with this argument, the UI team, wearing their distinctive yellow campus jackets, then questioned the government's credibility in regulating and supervising adoptions, pointing out that the government could not even determine the exact number of dead in the disaster.
In the end, the panel of nine adjudicators unanimously agreed that STAN had the better argument.
"UI did not prove their thesis and instead shifted to another, unrelated, argument," said the tournament's chief adjudicator, Winda Wahyudi.
Mahardhika, of UI, who was named the tournament's best speaker, accepted the decision graciously, "STAN is a good team, it was a fair decision."
Redwan Firdaus, 21, a member of the winning team, said "It feels great ... our long preparations paid off."
Aside from Redwan, STAN's winning team members included Jeni Wardin and Nidya Hapsari, who received the distinction of second best speaker.
The UI team, which was one of two teams sent by the university, consisted of Mahardika Sajat, Verdinand Siahaan and Nilufar Rizki, who was named as the competition's third best speaker.
The debate format follows the Australasian rules, allowing each team member seven minutes of uninterrupted time to present their arguments, followed by a five minute closing argument by a designated team member.
Teams are then judged individually based on the logic of their arguments, the cohesiveness of their team's case and their delivery.
Next year's Indonesian Varsity English Debate competition, which aims to promote English proficiency and debating skills, will be hosted by the Ahmad Dahlan University in Yogyakarta.
Mahardhika, who has debated competitively since high school, said she enjoyed debating in English, "It gives an adrenaline rush ... I don't think it would be as exciting if it were in Indonesian."