The role in society is vital for the children’s success.
This proves to be true, with the dedication and efforts from the parents and teachers of four boys from SM Sains Kuching Utara (SAKURA) as they emerged as champions of the Prime Minister’s Challenge Cup Debate, simultaneously bringing home to Sarawak a trophy for the first time after 43 years.
The boys who made Sarawak proud at the stage of SM Sains Banting, Selangor from May 20 to 25 were Ariz Syaqil Aizuddin, Ahmad Amsyar Khan Sarjankhan, Ahmad Zaki Ayman Ali Rahim, and Nazmi Ahmad Nizar with the latter also received the Best Speaker Award in the English category.
Met recently at the Kuching International Airport during their arrival night, family members were seen waving banners and balloons to welcome them home.
Among those present were parents of Nazmi who were overwhelmed by his success. His mother, Dr Siti Zahariah Ahmad Ishak praised her son’s achievements as she believes oratory skills are important. “I encouraged Nazmi to pursue in debate as I believe the skills obtained are important for his future. I would also encourage him to join any activities the school has to offer.”
The school’s debate club started in 2013 with Noor Nui Nadia as the teacher in charge. Describing her moments on stage together with the boys during the result announcement, “I was caught in disbelief as although we had an aim to enter the finals, we have no expectation in being champion”, she said.
Apart from that, the club also received undying support from the group of parents. The support group, is chaired by businesswoman, Melina Hassan. She was grateful to have a group of parents who would help with financial aids for the underfunded club. Funds used were to sponsor trainers to come in and to subsidise debate competitions fees.
“It was a struggle initially, but as the saying goes ‘we reap what we sow’, the success of the boys is felt by all of us”, said Melina. It was in 2013 when the parents under her coordination, made the initiative to support the school’s debate club as they saw the potential to go further.
Debate trainer, Terence Aaron who has been training the school’s debate club for over a year hopes to see this achievement as the beginning of something bigger. The experience debater also wished to see the boys helping younger debaters pursue their dream in debating as how he did for the boys.
Ariz Syaqil Aizuddin, 16-years-old
Described by his brother as persistent, Ariz’s motivational drive came from wanting to represent Sarawak in the national level. For Ariz, debating has changed his perspective on life and has broaden his knowledge. His advice to all youth is to have self-confidence. “Everything starts with being optimistic, if you have a positive outlook, you will have confidence in what you do”.
Ahmad Amsyar Khan Sarjankhan, 16-years-old
Amsyar’s motivational drive is his teachers who motivate him; his friends who never gave up together with him and his parents who gave him constant support. When asked what was the toughest moment during the competition, he answered, “When our team went against SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman Ipoh, we had to brainstorm on compulsory health care, for me that was the most difficult.” His advice to youth is to always try something new and never give up in pursuing their dreams. Amsyar believes when pursuing dreams, we would be met with obstacles but if we never give up, our dreams would not too.
Ahmad Zaki Ayman Ali Rahim, 15-years-old
Being the youngest in the group, what scares Zaki the most during the competition was when the adjudicators announced the result of each debate round. As a PT3 student this year, Zaki balanced his time between his studies and extra curriculum by being focus and committed in what he does. Zaki’s advice to the youth is to develop skills as he believe skills are the fundamentals for the road of success.
Nazmi Ahmad Nizar, 16-years-old
Nazmi was characterised by his mother as a talented son as while being a top student and head of prefect in school, he also involves himself with music, dancing, and cricket. Meanwhile, Dr Norisah Suhaili, the school’s Principal who saw the potential of Nazmi during his form 1 years define him as charismatic.
“I told him to brief about thinking tools to a group of Education Officers from Kedah, and they were surprised to see such a young boy delivering his talk well.”
The young boy was awarded as the Best Speaker for the English category and his motivational drive are his parents who gave their support to him in pursuing debate. While having stress can be seen as a negative, Nazmi instead saw it in a positive outlook as stress is what helps him to do things. He added, “I need stress to study”. He advised youths to not be afraid to try anything, what’s important is the effort in doing something.
The Cup is in its 44th year, and saw a total of 69 schools nationwide competing. It was initially organised by our second Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein who held the competition with only Bahasa Melayu as the medium of debate. The English language category was later added in to the Cup by Malaysia’s third Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad.
During the final round, SAKURA went against Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah under the motion ‘This House Would Introduce A Common Currency in Asian Countries’. SAKURA sent two teams to compete in the cup in different language category and last year, the school managed to enter semi-finals in the English Language category.
Two other schools from Sarawak that took part in the competition are SM Sains Kuching and SM Sains Miri.
