Debate 3.

The Ultimate Victory!

by Michael Fung.

All eyes were on the chairperson that day. It was May the 4^th. “It’s hard to tell who’s going to win,” said Arafat who was sitting beside me, “I think that Sayyidina Othman put up a good fight.” However, I don’t think so. As the debate came to a close, everyone wanted to see the champions of Brunei’s 13^th Interschool English Debate Competition. Our team was triumphant this time while SMSO made a great finish. To the judges, they were going to make a hard decision.

Then the winner was announced… PTEK WON! If you were present at that moment, you would see how stimulated and wild the supporters went at the time. It was practically legendary. This was only the 1^st year in the new school of Katok and we have achieved something already. Every single one of us was thrilled. Huge smiles were on the debate’s team faces.

Before that happened, the team did a good preparation, the topic was “This house believes that health coverage should be the individual’s responsibility” with our team as the opposition – again! Health coverage is basically like health insurance. The Team thought it was an easier topic and did good preparations for it. They dedicated their free – sometimes not so free – time, researching and practicing. They were really well prepared for it.

After the 2^nd semi-finals – the one after ours – we were quite surprised that MD was beaten by SMSO because MD was clearly a better team than the latter – according to sources. Their team – SMSO – consisted of Musa, Helmi and Hayati whom I would say, quite an interesting bunch of people.

We came to RTB like the other day, this time; there were spectators from quite a number of other schools including MD. Ours came a little late. There were clearly more people than before. Even the ministry of health came to witness! I assumed that they came to get some ideas from the younger generation.

The permanent secretary of MOH did his speech and then the debate began. It was the most interesting debate I’ve ever seen before. Musa was the 1^st speaker but then stayed quiet for the rest of the debate. Helmi was LOUD and Hayati likes making hand gestures, movements and that entire sort when she talks. She was REALLY hilarious resulting to the sound of giggling coming from the audience. But no matter how terrible they did, Helmi made an outstanding finish, “You don’t go into the surgery ward so you can cut yourself up and suddenly find that there’s actually nothing wrong with you.”

Our team was great, Yusuf made a wonderful start, Julius did great and Jarrod made history. It was no wonder he had also won the “Best Speaker Award”. What these guys did was superb magic. They turned the tide on top of the opposing team.

Later that day, SMSA, the host school did a presentation. Personally, I don’t find it very entertaining – no offense.

To sum it all up, I think that the whole debate club and the English department are the real winners and deserve as much respect as the debating team. Without them, they team wouldn’t be what they are now. They have given their fullest support. That huge trophy is probably resting neatly somewhere in the school’s cabinet.

Read More

Debate 2.

Another Step to Victory!

by Michael Fung.

Yes! They did it! After the prelims, the knockers debate team were going to be against PTE Meragang’s during the semi-finals. Their topic was going to be “This house believes that the media abuses its power” with our team as the opposition! At first, the team hated it because they felt as if it was against them but then, Mr Bobby came up with a brilliant plan.

After hours of dedication and practice, the team along with its supporters left school early in the morning of april the 28^th to RTB in Bandar. Our school was actually pretty psyched up about the whole thing. When we arrived, we sat in the Dewan raya where the debate was actually held. The supporters sat in an audience like manner on one side of the hall. The other side was meant for the supporters of PTE Meragang who were apparently later than we are. Once they arrived, we were told that the debate was going to start in a few moments time. We waited anticipately.

This was going to be filmed by RTB too. You could also see some of the supporters from both sides doing some filming of their own.

The teams from both sides were sited. Our team consisted of six people with Jarrod Sim BE 8, Julius Hong BE 7 and Yusof Fadli AE 24 as the main team and Azeemah AE 3, Izzati BE 7 and Arafat BE 19 as the reserves.

Our opponents consisted of three people who were Jordin Maxim, Haziqah and Angelie Chu. They were quite formidable, really.

During the debate, Jordin, 1^st speaker of the proposition gave her speech. For an opening, she did quite well. Yusuf then went on giving his team’s opinion about the topic. At first, the opponents were quite fierce and aggressive but eventually showed obvious weaknesses such as inability to argue with a logical reason. They became nervous. Our team had simply obliterated them. Finally, the debate ended with Jarrod gave an incredible rebuttal of all their points.

The results came out soon and we won! It was also quite evident that PTEM was quite unhappy with the results – their team didn’t quite cheer as enthusiastic as we are.

We were then all told that PTEK was going to partake in the finals the following week. The team stayed for the photoshoot. I took the courage to talk with Jarrod and the rest of the team after the debate. After that, the team had to stay to watch the next debate that afternoon. In a way, we were already ready for the finals…

Read More