3rd Malaysia Debate Open report‏

The 3rd Malaysia Debate Open, held at Multimedia University, Melaka last weekend has been really amazing. Within a short time frame of three days, we had 96 teams from 11 countries debated in 7 prelims and 4 break rounds. The tournament had been exceptional well run with only an hour delay on each day despite having to accommodate a sudden increase of 20 teams that came on day 1, and an additional preliminary round.

I would like extend my utmost gratitude and thanks to the three deputy chief adjudicator (Skanda Prasad, Tasneem Elias and Ahyoung Kim), conveners (Sarah Quin and Sha-maine), tournament directors (Ila and Kumar), the tab team (headed by Latif), organizing and working committee for making all this possible. These individuals had sacrificed partying/sleep/classes to make this event a success. Also equally important, I was like to personally thank all the participants, both debaters and adjudicator for coming and made the past few days a really memorable experience.

The tournament this year saw a significant number of composite teams and incredibly strong pool of debaters/adjudicators. Hence, a big congratulations to team Powerpuff Girls (Shiveena, Gica and Ces) for winning the championship and to Logan from Dog Curry (Tate, Nam Chul, Logan) for grabbing both the best grand final and best overall speaker award.

The list of the breaking teams and the top 10 speakers:
Champions: Powerpuff Girls (Shiveena Paramanand, Gica Mangahas and Cecile Gotamco)

Finalist: Dog Curry (Tate, Nam Chul Kim, Logan)

Semi-Finalists: Sugarfree (Rolan Garcia, Dani de Castro, Jayson Maulit) and Team Sum ( Kanna, Reuban, Syed Arafat)

Quarter Finalists: IIUM 2 (Habib, Azrul, Azri), IIUM 3 (Irzal, Sarah, Senad), Ateneo X (Walter, James, Allan) and NTU 1 (Arvind, Rohan, Milind)

Octo Finalists: LAG (Groobie, Lavania, Timothy), MIDP 1Msia (Hafiz, Tubby, Sooch), NUS (Ashok, Sadhana, Aji), NLSIU 1 (Aniruddha, Anil, Dibyojyoti), Two and a half girls (Aina, Aerie, Mai), Obamamamas (Ain, Izzat, Atiq), Waseda (Kowa, Marie, Takeru)

Top 10 speakers:

1) Logan
2) Tate
3) Timothy Andrew
4) Dani De Castro
5) Tubby
6) Gica Mangahas
7) Rolan Garcia
7) Jayson Maulit
9) Iqbal Hafiedz
9) Suchar

The full speaker and team tabs are available at http://malaysiadebateopen.com/?page_id=15.

Motions:
Demo Debate:
THW prioritize military veterans for jobs.

Round 1: Malaysia Boleh!
THBT religious conversion should not be a pre-requisite for marriage.
THW allow political parties to announce alliances only before elections.
THW abolish unnatural sex laws (oral/anal sex).

Round 2: Food
THBT countries with overall food shortage should not join the race for bio-fuels.
THW ban speculative trading on food products.
THW penalize corporations that waste food.

Round 3: Animals
THBT PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) should only accept vegetarians as members.
THW ban the neutering of pets.
THW allow the sale of parts of endangered animals which die natural deaths.

Round 4: IR
THBT the West would recognize Palestinian attacks on Israeli settlements as legitimate.
TH supports military intervention in Libya.
THW reintroduce the Sunshine Policy towards North Korea.

Round 5: Movement
THW pay beggars to leave big cities.
TH rejects the confinement of refugees.
THBT countries should give open borders to traditionally nomadic groups.

Round 6: Religion
THBT fear should not be used as a means of propagating religion to children.
THW ban religious preaching in public places.
THW ban religious groups from lobbying.

Round 7: Adam and/or Eve
THBT governments of developed countries should incentivize overseas adoption from Least Developed Countries
THW introduce affirmative action for sexual minorities (LGBT)
THBT mandatory military service should include women

Octo finals: Media
THBT governments sponsorship of TV shows that promote its agendas is justified.
THW disallow the making of biographical movies without the consent of the subject or his legal heir.
THW not give awards to celebs who glorify or openly use drugs.

Quarter finals: Law
THBT states should remove diplomatic immunity for judicial fairness.
THBT states should pay compensation to criminals who are acquitted after appeal.
THW ban the media from airing opinions on ongoing court trials

Semi Finals: Health and Medicine
THW deny healthcare to those who engage in illegal organ trading.
THW allow drug companies to advertize their products only to doctors.
THW ban research on behavior modification.

Grand Finals: Culture and Society
THBT cultural compatibility is legitimate grounds for differential immigration policies.
THBT it is justified for governments to destroy historical evidence which can cause social unrest.
TH supports state initiatives to define a national cultural identity.

I hope everyone had fun here in Melaka. If there is a 4th MDO, we'll be looking forward to see all of you again next year!

Warm Regards,
Alexander Loh,
Chief Adjudicator,
3rd Malaysia Debate Open,
Multimedia University Melaka.