Feature

Nazia Ahmed

In the last issue, we covered the debate festival of IBA National English Debate Championship-2007. Now as we come more up close we get to see and chat with the 3 titans who were on the stage battling relentlessly and in the end posed with the trophy and a smile of contentment as the camera went 'click'.

Mohammad Arbaaz Nayeem, who has done his schooling from Sunbeams and Mastermind, is a 3rd year BBA student in IBA. “I consider myself lucky as I could see the booming of the debate culture, for which the opportunities that I got when I was in school were more than convenient for me, using which I got to brush up and explore the basic skills at the best of time. My biggest inspiration then would be my teachers Ms Indrani Mahaptra and Nusrat Haq and my parents. When I reached my college years in Mastermind, I started taking part in intercollegiate debates, from which I will mention The Daily Star - VNC Debate in the year 2002 where I got to test my limits and came out successful. In the second year things started to blossom more as I got to take part in the Singapore World 2004 Debate Championship. It is truly a memory to cherish.”

A 2nd year BBA student who comes from St. Joseph's High School and Notre Dame College, Ridwan M Karim considers his early days in debate somewhat shaky. “I was in class 7 when I first started to take part in debates. Although I did not find myself in the best shape in my school days and pretty much stayed dormant in my college years, I started to come out of my shell when I got into IBA. The most and best opportunities I got were from IBA, as we helped the debate club go places after a break of three and a half years in its trend. I realized that debate is an art that blossoms through continuity and regular practice. As such, one must never quit no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem like. This very approach helped me stand where I am now. My biggest inspirations are my parents, my cousin Asad Khan Priyo, my uncles and my best friends. One of the most memorable international debates I have taken part in is the Vancouver UBC debate, where ours was the best out of the 3 teams that took part from Bangladesh.”

The third of the 3 champs is also a 2nd year BBA student Md. Golam Kibria who comes from Radiant International School and also did his college from Mastermind. “ My experience in debating started when I was in class 6 and continued till class 8. However after a gap of two years I started with full gear at Mastermind where it was a tough challenge to beat Arbaaz bhaia who was undoubtedly the best. After I joined IBA there wasn't even a room or a moderator for the debating club, which was as good as dead. But after a while, we started operating the club under our moderator Syed Munir Khashru, organized international debates and helped the club gain momentum.”

SC: Tell us something about your team.
“We compliment each other with our versatility in knowledge. Me and Ridwan cover the national side while Arbaaz handles the international arena.” Says Kibria.

“We argue and oppose each other's theory as a practice during preparation but as soon as we reach consensus we become unbeatable! The trust that we have on each other helps us pull off every single loophole on stage.” Says Arbaaz.

“Up until now, as a team we only lost once. And the pressure to stay indomitable as a team, works as an incentive itself for winning.” Says Ridwan.

SC: What do you consider as the key to becoming a good debater?
“Team work and team spirit. While on the floor, you need to work as a team that has no controversy among each other, for who would save your back better than your own team members.” Says Kibria.

“There will be humiliations and awkward moments but the key is to go on without looking back” Says Ridwan.

“ Individualism and arrogance has a fine line between them. Debating is hard, so be proud and not humble.” Says Arbaaz.

SC: What do you think is missing in our debating arena?
“The most important thing is the debating front. We should have only one front devoid of any politics. There are also a lot of conflicts among the teams in our country more on a personal level. This stands in the way of interacting and getting to know each other better and have a healthy debating environment.” Says Arbaaz.

“On that note, I think we are way too much institutionalized rather than nationalized. If we don't overcome this problem then debating in the international arena would become very challenging to handle. Thus the schools and colleges should teach us to debate as a community for a better future.” Says Ridwan.

“Another factor working here is the lack of English debates held at school levels. As such even though there are brilliant debaters, they lag behind in the international field.” Says Kibria.

SC: How do you suggest we should go about these problems?
“The clubs all throughout the nation should be less insular. They should make more space for socialization. The schools and colleges should create opportunities where we the seniors can go and share our experience and give them valuable tips which will help them scrap away the bookishness.” Says Ridwan and Arbaaz.

“In many cases, the judges, mostly in school and college levels are found to be absolutely oblivious of this arena as they have never debated or have any experience in this field. The authorities should understand that these debaters would be counting on their scores and any partiality or mismanagement might demoralize them for life.” Says Kibria.

SC: Tell us something about IBACC.
“One name comes automatically when we talk about our club, that would be Syed Munir Khashru our moderator, who is an organizer as well as a debater himself. Thus he knows exactly what is necessary for the club and us. He would always manage to make time for us even late at night. We never really had to worry about money since he would always manage to collect sponsors. His dedication and leadership made us come this far. Our president and General Secretary had also put in 100 percent dedication for the last one year. We will always be grateful to them for their relentless support all throughout.” Says Ridwan, Arbaaz and Kibria.

“We believe in bringing all under the same roof”
-Syed Munir Khasru

Interview by Feeda Hasan Shahed

Prelude
Syed Munir Khasru is the man behind the successful arrangement of IBA National Debate Championship 2007. I talked to him regarding different aspects of this competition, like how this mega arrangement was done, what was the eventual goal, how has been the competition contributing to our debating arena, whether the competition could be arranged in a broader setting to draw more crowd etc. Here is what he had to say.

Prof. Munir Khasru
“Debating itself has grown quite significantly in last decade and as you can notice starting from school, colleges and universities it has grown quite impressively. For IBA, the primary objective was to bring in all the private and public universities across the country on a uniform platform. As you know there are some misperceptions among the universities outside Dhaka, like Khulna, Chittagong, Rajshahi that their students may not be good in English but it is not true. Because, English is just one part of the debate. The other important parts include general knowledge, ability to think on your feet, ability to make reasonable argument and so on. And at times we have seen that a team may not have a very good English speaker but otherwise has good debaters. So, for the last two years, IBA has been taking the lead in making it a national level event where all the graduate students of the leading universities from public to private are invited. And another thing we tried to do is bring the student community together as there are unease and tension existing between private and public universities which we believe shouldn't exist at all! The participating students were very friendly with one another and they fought very strongly in the competition.

“We see in the parliamentary form of debates that the arguments are below standard. Steps have to be taken to improve and standardise it. IBA is ready to provide all technical support to other campuses that want to organise such events. Any university that wants to do joint venture with us is welcome.

“Another thing that we have tried to prove is that public institutions can be very affective in organizing such big events. We believe that our accountability is much more than that of the private universities as public university is run by public tax paid money. There are many private houses which need support and encouragement. You may have noticed that the well respected corporate house ACI came up to assist us. They are happy with the way things have been managed. The students are also learning to organize big events and their leadership skill is also increasing.

I must appreciate that the level of fluency is much better now than before. Students today have more exposure, more access to reading materials, Internet, TV channels etc.

One thing I must admit is, the current generation of students is little bit lagging behind in the area of general knowledge.

They should find time to engage in quality reading to make themselves better debaters, to enrich their database from where they can draw their arguments. So my advice to the young promising debaters in Bangladesh is: read more, get your acts together, and no matter where you arrange the event - in Dhaka or outside Dhaka , try to bring all under the same roof. And while you are debating, fight it out fiercely, and engage in the war of words. But the moment you are outside the debating try to make friends from the other universities.

In the last competition, we arranged a round table for the debaters on their thoughts and the current reform process. The reason is, there are lots of reformation going on - from anti-corruption to tax payment etc, - but the fact is the benefit of this reform would ultimately be enjoyed by the current generation when they would take up the leadership within five to ten years. I was inspired to see their inherent democratic principles and values in spite of their disillusionment about the politicians.

And lastly I must say that we were happy to have The Daily Star as the media partner. Being the highest circulated and respected daily, they do have a social responsibility too. And Star Campus is already doing that, partucularly among the students.