IIUM 10th Interschool Debating Championship

My pride. My life. My event. My school.

The past few days were few of those days that i'll cheers forever. After 6 years of excluding myself from this event, denied the opportunities to do what i love most, FINALLY i'm here. I am back in one of the most prestigious event in Malaysia, the Interschool Debating Championship (IDC)

It was kinda dream come true. I never thought that I'll ever come back here, not after all that happened to me. But I guess Allah has a plan for me. It took me 6 painful years to go through all the bureaucracy, hardworks and finally, I'm back. And I'm thankful for that.

Well, it's kinda funny when i went there and saw all my juniors. NONE of them knew me. Why? Because the last batch that i ever took care off had graduated from the school and all of'em are university/college students now. Hahaha. I didn't even know the teacher that accompanied the team! That's how long have i excluded myself from the school and this tournament.

Well, when i said my name there, apparently some of'em had heard of it being mentioned by their trainers. Thank God. And my special thanks to Miss Rosnah, my greatest debate trainers of all time. First for mentioning my name to these kids who never see me and secondly and the most important one, to make me who I am.

I have to say that this time, all of the debaters were green. Like super green. Some of'em only of 13 years of age and guess what? They really surprised me when they talked! That sort of styles were only seen at least in someone of 15 years of age during my time. I guess the world change. Or maybe its only me who was left out in all this thingy.

Well, i bunked in with some of these kids. They were of my sister's age, and some of'em are really funny. I observed them, corrected their mistakes and taught them the right ways of debating. For example how is the first speaker should start talking? How are they gonna unite the team? How to do rebuttals? How to propose a motion and all sorta things. So i'm there as an observer and a tutor.

Training a young corp of debaters ain't no easy job. I knew it because when i was 16, i had to trained, changed and tighten up skills of all debaters in my new school. To make them understand and know what they're doing, to instill the pride and respect as a debater and to improve themselves as they moved on.....all of these things are things that a good debater must have. It was taught to me since i was 13 by my seniors and now i'm proudly teaching my juniors about it. It is a tradition of knowledge that no one can ever take it from us debaters, except God.

If there is one thing that i really miss nowadays is these things. To make friends after one whole day of fighting over a motion. To win and still respect your opponents. To loose and gain respect from the winners. But most of all is to use my brain to the full capacity in order to make rebuttals, POIs (point of informations) and others. These are things that no one can ever substitute, even being in medical course now.

When i first come to Monash, i do realize that people here are different. In a way, some of them can't live past a session of debate or clash of ideas. They tend to bring these issues outside the room, which is a big NO for us debaters. We might seem to kill each other in debate session but outside, we're best friends. I guess not all people are raised or educated in that kind of environment. And certainly not all people are debaters. This is one part that i really miss in my life now.

Our pride as debater live with us through the years. Not to say that we're proud that we can outsmart people when we're talking. Or to defy all others ideas and think we're the best. No sir. That's not debating. Our pride as debaters lie in the fact that we belong to a family, where we respect each other for our ability to think and engage in academic discussions. We are proud that this tradition goes on, and we're doing our best to ensure that the next generations of debaters feel the same thing as we were, the feel of belonging to this family.

I am proud of what my juniors achieved. All of them. In both schools (you know i have 2 different high schools). As long as my advices, experience and expertise as a debater are required, I'll be there. To raise up young, eager kids to become intelligent, respectful debaters are always my honor. This is our pride as a debater. This is our way of life.

"Once a debater, always a debater"