ATENEO de Manila University, the Philippines, and Peking University, China, were crowned Asian Champions in the Malaysia United Asian Debating Championship (UADC) 2022 Open Category and the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Category, respectively.
The varsities each received RM1,500 while David Africa (Ateneo de Manila) and Ricky Jin (Peking University) took home RM400 each for winning the Best Speaker awards. The prize money was sponsored by Taylor’s College.
The championship drew over 500 participants from 84 universities across Asia, including the National University of Singapore, the University of Hong Kong, Dhaka University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, the University of Tokyo, Tribhuvan University of Nepal, Lahore University, and Chulalongkorn University.
A myriad of debate topics ranging from human rights to Asian international relations, geopolitics, economics, environment, sports, education, and labour rights gave participants the opportunity to discuss various current issues from different perspectives and lived experiences.
The UADC, which uses the three-on-three parliamentary debating format, was founded in 2010 by the Asian Debating Community.
The virtual event, held on Oct 1, 2, 8 and 9, was organised by the Malaysian Institute for Debate and Public Speaking (MIDP) and Taylor’s College.
The last time the championship was held in Malaysia was in 2012.
Since then, the UADC has been held in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
“With the impending general election and the lowering of the voting age in Malaysia, we wanted to bring the UADC back to Malaysia to remind our youth that they have a platform to share their opinions, to scrutinise and dissent, as well as to participate in intellectual discourse.
“Organising the Malaysia UADC is such a significant effort because it goes beyond debating. It’s about enriching democracy, promoting free speech and improving youth political participation,” said MIDP chief executive officer Emellia Shariff in a press release.
Taylor’s College campus director Josephine Tan said speech and debate offer significant civic advantages in the sense of challenging content, competent advocacy, and understanding of global and current affairs.
“Beyond this competition, the mission of many debate and speech tournaments is to seek out ways to further develop and refine the young generation with soft skills like leadership, communication, critical and creative thinking, among other skills that are necessary to prepare them for their productive place in the world.
“Such philosophy stands true for Taylor’s and the MIDP as well,” she added.
