Feature

Team Bangladesh brings glory from New Delhi

Saad Bin Amjad

YOUNG voices from Bangladesh demonstrated to the world what they can do for the society and for the nation. When Bangladesh is widely condemned in South Asia for their corruption records, two boys defied all those odds and among the eight South Asian countries they grabbed the runners up trophy in a debate competition that was based on the issue “Corruption”.

On 24th October 2008, Team India was declared the champion whilst Team Bangladesh grabbed the runners up trophy in the SAARC round of the 11th Dr. Mahbub ul Haq Memorial Inter-School Debate, organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies (RGICS) of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. This debate was in the memory of Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, the father of the UNDP commissioned Human Development Reports and the Human Development Index on which countries are ranked based on their progress on three indicators of human development education, health and income.

Saad Bin Amjad and Anam Hossain, students of Manarat Dhaka International College proudly represented their country. In the final round they debated on the topic “All countries in the world, rich and poor, are vulnerable to corruption, so corruption is not a development issue at all.” The topic drew inspiration from the latest UNDP Asia Pacific Report on the theme “Tackling Corruption, Transforming lives”.

Earlier in the month of September, UNDP and Rajiv Gandhi Foundation handed over the responsibility to Dhaka University Debating Society (DUDS) based on their organizing capabilities to host the national rounds. National rounds were organized to select the best two debaters of the country who would be given the rare chance to represent their country in the final SAARC round. Notably national rounds of this competition were also organized in all the other SAARC countries, namely Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This time around over 1000 schools from South Asia participated in the national rounds of the debates and the winning teams from each country traveled to New Delhi for the ultimate debating session.

The debates of national round were held in British Parliament Format. Twenty-four teams of different schools of Bangladesh participated in that four-day debating championship. The teams that managed to secure the final spots were St. Joseph, European Standard School (ESS) and two teams form Manarat Dhaka International College.

On the 24th of October 2008the debaters were taken to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation's Conference Hall for the debating session.

As mentioned earlier the motion for the final round was “All countries in the world, rich and poor, are vulnerable to corruption, so corruption is not a development issue at all.”

It raised a range of issues about corruption and its impact on the lives of the people of South Asia, particularly the poorest and the most vulnerable.

While making their speech, debaters from different countries moved the Conference Hall of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation with logics and emotions.

“The real price of corruption is not paid in currency after all. The true costs are eroded opportunities, increased marginalization of the disadvantaged and feelings of injustice” said Sheza Alqera Atiq, the student from Pakistan's Karachi Grammar School.

“Corruption is like a tree with branches of immeasurable length… they spread everywhere,” said Devika Luniya, a member of Team India, quoting John Fletcher and to this she added, “it is also insidious pests that work underground and prevent development from taking root”.

The judges were Director Transparency International India P S Bawa, well known southern actor Kamal Khan, Secretary General of Press Club of India Pushpendra Kulshrestha and senior officer of UNDP Omar Noman.

The judges came out with results after a long closed-door session. In the team category, Team India comprised of debaters of the Bai Avavai Franji Petit's Girl High School Mumbai was declared winners, and Team Bangladesh, debaters of the Manarat Dhaka International College, took the runners-up trophy.

In the individual category, Tshering Penjore from Motihang Higher Secondary School Bhutan was adjudged the winner in favor of the motion and Sheza Alqera Atiq, a student from Pakistan's Karachi Grammar School was the winner against the motion.

Presenting the prizes to the winning teams, India's Minister for External Affairs, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee invoked Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy in life was to never compromise the means to reach the end. He detailed out the path for the young people of the society to fight corruption.

UNDP Resident Representative, Dr. Maxine Olson said in her keynote address: “Corruption is a global problem that affects all countries. It is probably true that wherever you find people you will find at least some level and some form of corruption.”

Before long, the debaters were informed that they will be visiting Ms. Sonia Gandhi at her residence the next day. It was the most cherish moment for all the debaters. Ms. Sonia Gandhi congratulated everyone for participating, especially the winning and runner-up team for their achievement. She congratulated team Bangladesh and wished them success in life.