KUCHING: SMK Lutong alumni debaters were crowned as champion of the third Swinburne Sarawak Debate Open with four wins, zero losses and total speaker scores of 1,064.
The debaters dubbed ‘Friends’ were Roderic Thang Wen Bin, Daphne Yeo Lok Yin, and Bong Sin Yi.
Their juniors from SMK Lutong who were the first runner-up of the same tournament consists Form Five students named Ryan Tan Lai En; Anisha Praveen; and Tan Wei Shuen while the second runner-up was taken by the Form Two students from the same school compromising Ryan Foh Jing Yee; Kalpana Murugayah; and Andrea Ong Li Wei.
However, the best speaker of the tournament was won by Mohammad Zulfadhli Sobri from Universiti Teknologi Petronas.
“The trio of teams from SMK Lutong train together, with the seniors coaching the juniors.
“The students had all hoped to gain experience from participating in the tournament and I was surprised by the result,” said the school’s teacher and debate mentor Alex Wong.
According to Swinburne’s statement, a total of 14 teams took part in the online debate tournament including teams from Perak and Kedah, along with teams from Miri, Bintulu and Kuching.
It mentioned that in the Swiss style debate, every team debates in every round, and the team with the highest speaker scores wins.
They added that the debate themes included education, health, society and environment with motions ranging from ‘This House would make it mandatory to vote’ to ‘This House would tax companies based on their carbon emissions’.
“My favourite moment during this tournament is when secondary school students took on seasoned university debaters and managed to come out on top.
“It shows that when you are determined, there is nothing you cannot overcome.
”The enthusiasm and determination of the debaters for the spirit of debate made for an exciting tournament with the most memorable quip,” said the Chief Adjudicator Wahaj Qaisar.
