My Debating Career
- Nov 12, 2015
- 6 min read
Having started off as a varsity-level debater in July 2013, the past 2 years have been nothing short of breathtaking as my career as a debater proved to be rewarding and ultimately worthwhile. Among the awards I attained throughout my illustrious career include winning the Dato' Teo Soo Pin Debating Championship 2015, organised by Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU), and being ranked the 3rd best speaker of the tournament. I also reached the Finals of the Malaysian National Intervarsity Debating Championship 2014, Malaysia's largest and most inclusive Debating Tournament, sponsored by the Youth and Sports Ministry. The tournament was adjudicated by YB Khairy Jamaluddin, and as Finalists we won a cash prize of RM2,500. In addition to that, I reached the Semi Finals of the UiTM Intervarsity Debating Championship 2014, as well as the Damansara Open Debate 2014. I also won numerous Top 10 Best Speaker awards at various tournaments, such as at the 2014 and 2015 editions of the Seri Iskandar Debate Open, hosted by University Teknologi Petronas, as well as the British Parliamentary Novice Tournament in 2014, hosted by Asia Pacific University. At that tournament, my team was the highest ranking team, attaining a cumulative total of 14 out of a possible 15 points.
As my debating career blossomed, I began venturing into judging and adjudicating to contribute towards the debating community better as well as to further my learning experiene as a debater. The highlight of my adjudicating experience was being part of the adjudication core of the Damansara Open Debate 2015. This meant that I played a major role in running the tournament, through the formulation of motions and the selection of other adjudicators. I was also responsible in making sure that the tournament was run on time, together with members of the organising committee. In addition, I was also selected to judge the Grand Finals of numerous other tournaments, such as the Taylor's University Interschool Debating Championship 2015, the KDU Interschool Debating Championship 2015, Malaysia National Novice 2014 and Gardens International School Debate Open 2015.
Among the skills I acquired and developed throughout my debating career, my oratory skills can most definitely be said to have developed the most. Not only have I overcome any and all previous fears of speaking in public, I am also more fluent and coherent than before when communicating, which represents a highly significant advantage. This is because each debate speech lasts for 7 minutes, and through years of training I have gotten used to exceeding that duration when giving speeches. The video below is a recording of one of such speeches I gave during the preliminary rounds of the Malaysia National Intervarsities Debating Championships 2014, on a motion of imposing Male Privilege Taxes on all males. I was the Prime Minister in the debate.
Secondly, debating has also helped me think critically in short periods of time. Since debaters only have 15 minutes to prepare for their speeches in Parliamentary Style debating, I was taught and trained to think quickly and critically about topics which I may not be familiar with and to examine and analyse different perspectives and opinions about the topic. The Points of Information offered during speeches also trained me to think on my feet when faced with a response or rebuttal to my arguments, further enhancing my ability to think critically under tremendous pressure.
Thirdly, my ability to research has also improved, as keeping up to date with current affairs is a key part of debating. Not only am I more skilled at locating the material that I need through sources which I must individually assess to be legitimate and transparent, I am also more diligent in my pursuit of knowledge in academic capacities. This is immensely beneficial as not only do I go to great extents to satisfy my curiosity, my resourcefulness from debating also makes it easier for me to get answers to my queries to gain a better understanding of the subject matter.
Fourthly, debating has also taught me to work in a team effectively through teamwork. This is because I have learnt that it is not possible for an individual to do well if proper coordination and communication is present within the team, and that ultimately any success and victory achieved will only be present if the team does well together, and that there is no way one person can win on his own. Not only has debating taught me to value teamwork, I am a more effective team player by virtue of being willing to share knowledge and suggest strategies for the benefit of the team, as well as being more vocal in proposing solutions to problems.
In hindsight, debating has been one of the key factors which shaped my perspectives and thoughts as a person, both at present and in the future. Firstly, I have reflected upon the fact that debating will have a close correlation with my future career as a legal practitioner. Seeing my affinity to issues which pertain to society, economics and law, it comes as no surprise that I chose debating as a means of discussing these issues that are close to my heart and relevant to my future practice as a lawyer, given the importance of societal awareness and individual positioning and opinions on issues pertinent to society, such as abortion, corporate taxes, and military intervention in conflict zones. The importance of debating also lies within the understanding and discussion of ideas and arguments, as any healthy society requires a clash of ideas and opinions to function, instead of an echo chamber where people create enclaves of personal idealogies with no discussion and deliberation with the outside world. This results in a lose-lose situation, as both parties not only misunderstand and misinterpret each others' intentions and beliefs, but it also threatens to lead to worse outcomes should parties not be engaged in a decision which affects them as much as anyone else. Debating taught me that conclusively, the truth is that our opinions are unlikely to always be 'right', and oftentimes there may be no 'right' opinion, hence the necessity to communicate effectively and widen one's intellectual horizons, no matter how convince I may be by the self-deduced rationale of my logic. Debating has provided me with the perfect platform to not only challenge ideas, but also to have my ideas challenged, a process which has allowed me to understand myself better and discover my political affiliations and my personal stances on societal issues such as gun violence in the United States and the ways it can be curbed.
Upon further reflection, I have also come to the realization that debating and law also both require structural thought and the application of real world analysis and examples. This is because the law is always created from real-world issues or disputes, be it in a private or public sphere. For example, prior to the case of Obergefell v Hodges (2015), the right of homosexual people to get married was never secure on a federal level in the United States, and was not constitutionally recognised by the State. Therefore, unlike many other co-curricular activities, debating enables me to think in ways which promote understanding and awareness of multiple perspectives as a person, and a lawyer. This is important given the nature of the law, which does not work in a vacuum but must be applied to the context of current society in order for justice to be served. That is why oftentimes laws which are narrow and only benefit parties in a specific context dispropotionately harm other parties which said law would apply to. This understanding helps me better fathom the needs of society at large and the role which the law plays now, and should play in the future, in catering to the needs of the society while acting as boundaries and State-enforced limitations on actions which render a party at a disadvantage, be it financial, physical or physiological.
One particular event in debating I find hard to forget is found in the video above, when I debated and proposed a motion about imposing a Male Privilege Tax, which requires men to be taxed in various ways in addition to their existing obligations, by virtue of simply being male, to compensate women for the patriarchal advantage they derive as an outcome of their gender throughout the course of their lives, be it through education or employment. While this may seem radical, the principles of the debate, such as how taxes are one of the best methods to redistribute income and compensate the disadvantaged, as well as the real-world outcomes in status quo of the patriarchy, such as the significant hurdles to entry of women in education and employment greatly spoke to me as an individual. Understanding the privileges and blindness of those who hold power, which includes myself, to a certain extent, allowed me to empathise with others in disadvantaged positions. This not only will make me a more emphatic human being and lawyer as it speaks to my morality and principles as an individual, but it also affects me as a law student, as I am better able, when reading law, to understand it's intentions and core, underlying purposes better. For all those reasons, debating is an extra-curricular activity which greatly benefitted me in ways no other extra-curricular activity possibly can, and I can say, changed my life for the better.
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