debate

i know my time is over, i mean, as a debater....secondary school level at least. so, in the spirit of the new beginning of the new debate team, i'll talk about my last two years in the team before any of the juniors can say "thank you mr speaker" on stage.

note.....this is a very long post.

how it started
now, that aside, lets begin. the 1st time i saw a proper debate was like when i was in form 1 or 2, but i do remember seeing gopi, thaalita and malini speak....but maybe not together.....sorry, bad memory. yeah, i still remember gopi and his "policeman in every car" story, and seeing mani on the Syed Jan stage for the very first time. guess they got me into it or something. in form 2, i decided, if not, obliged to the extent of being forced to enter the inter class debate held by the english club....well, i screw up back then, i supposed that's normal for first timers eh? that was my first debating moments, and i dont remember anything about it, except the handshake issue vijay had. then, everything about debate, just stop for a year, maybe due to pmr, i receive no news about debate at all.

form 4, was a different story. i wrote my name on the list of those who wanted to try out for debate and drama. yeah, i went for both. in the early stages, there were a lot more people in both teams....then, most of them just lost interest. so i guess i went to my first debate session with the seniors for a good trashing....i went there late, had to do 3rd, on something about fast food, or voting age. my 1st word that year, "WHATS THE POINT". definitely not my best moment, but hey, for a guy who just got there, i managed to somehow get adila do that scandalous look in denial and disbelieve.......and i still dont know why i said that. by the way, after a not so successful debate session, i went to drama, for only a day, because i was told that we had to choose one or something (again, bad memory). between the two, i chose debate, and im still looking for the reason behind that decision. so went to yet another session, and another, and another....it didnt take long to notice that the number of those coming back were decreasing. after some time, it boiled down to 4 of us, vijay, karmen, putra and me. i think among those who walked off was eujin and nigel, stephanie, chandera, possibly jason and jordan too. to be honest, i didnt get selected into the team....i was all they got, we were whats left of the list.

fast forward ( i forgot again)....we got the topics for district level....maybe at the same time with the HELP debate...which explains why we didnt go. anyway, when the team was formed, i got to know malini and putra, two absolute strangers to me. karmen and vijay and i came from the same primary school, so at least when debate started, i wansnt a complete loner. somehow, all 5 of us just clicked. we just dont fight i guess. in the beginning, i was the prime minister, and putra was the first opposition leader, but by some cosmic fate, mr fletcher, our debate teacher, made the switch, which is why im the opposition leader, and the reason i went on stage far too frequently. you see, the main reason for entering debate, for me, was to skip class. speaking on stage was never part of the plan. there was one senior who did very little debate the previous year because his side was rarely drawn. i entered with the hope of repeating that, and for a moment, i was going to succeed....but the switch just killed my brilliant plan....and there i was, speaking more than i wanted on stage.

the official team 07
so, there was the team, i was the first opposition leader, putra, a more successful prime minister than bodohi, vijay the 2nd opp leader, karmen, the irrelevant casanova speaking as deputy prime minister who once, abused the word "basically"..and the odd one, malini, the 3rd speaker for both sides, who managed to withstand all of our insanity combined...and still maintain her original mental state. we got two teachers in the team, mr fletcher and pn jac.

before i knew it, we started staying back for sessions, sir kept telling us stuff about each motion, news, history....just to give us an idea of the meaning of each motion. after learning that we got opp all the way in the district level, i know i had to work hard....because im speaking and yet, i was the least prepared, maybe still am. debate sessions drag on till 4 or 5 in the evening, and then we got the bonus, skipping class!!....my true aim.

District level 07
then, my first official starting point in a real competition began...agaisnt smk khir johari. pn jac worked her way out to get me less nervous, so since then, i always look at her when debating. moving on to the 2nd round agaisnt smk sin min, a chinese school that sent a non-chinese debate team. i kinda screw that one up, and with the finals in the next few hours, i felt worse. i mean, we heard that the kesh dude was good, so we got intimidated. so, going on a real stage for the 1st time, i killed the prime minister, got the mdm speaker helping me out, and realised that kesh wasnt so good after all. sir said, that was my best performance, one girl said i looked like i was going to cry....i thought "thats all it took?" so yeah, we won, after some confusion in the bakar arang team, who failed to comprehend and differentiate "1st runner up" and "champion", we defended our challenge trophy. that was one of the most awesome day in my life.....i was actually jumping and hugging the dudes there......and it felt as if i were on drugs.

State level 07
went on to state after that, with a lot more confidence. went agaisnt jitra in the 1st round as opp again....sail through that one. and we got to the drawing process.....brimming with confidence in my luck, i went and draw. we got sultanah asma in the next round, on the hardest motion in state level. i thought "damn", mani didnt have time to think, she just started whacking me with files and books. i know, this time, if we fall, its my fault for that stupid draw. i just cant allow the team to loose because of the bad draw. i worked like hell for that motion, stayed up longer than i should writing scripts with lots of drafts....went to school feeling like throwing up....got on stage with one of the biggest nerves, speaking like a drunk, and vijay and mani did just right to defeat the host that year. yeah, we beat sultanah asma, on their homeground, on that motion.....so the whacking stops there....and conspiracies began, where we thought that they were going to poison us with their canteen food or something....but i guess no one died anyway. sir was going to put me on stage regardless of the sides we were on in the finals, and i got that bad feeling of taking over putra's job. i mean, it just didnt look proper. so we had a discussion and agreed that putra was going. knowing that, i was really hoping to get govt that day, because if i do, i can sit down and relax for the 1st time that year. by luck, i got it. yup. WOOOHOOO, im not speaking! we sent putra and karmen for the finals, and that was their very 1st official debate, together with mani as 3rd. and it turn out to be awesome. putra had his cool and this air around him, karmen had his one-hand-card-flipping technique, got hit on the head when putra was adjusting the mike, and the debate was held with a useless mike on our side. regardless of that, we won and got our tickets to kuching.

Nationals 07
this is it. we never thought we were going to make it, but we were on our way to the airport. i still tak puas because i didnt get to sit in karmen's 3 series. ok, we stopped by klia wearing that stupid jpn yellow shit smelling like durians and pineapples, terrorized the place, left for kuching, putra got poisoned in the plane, i was related to the air stewardess for no reason. when we got there, we just checked in into our rooms and lock ourselves up. didnt bother making friends in the beginning. the next day, 1st round agaisnt terengganu as opp....which was easier than expected...and the dudes were kinda cool i guess. 2nd day, opp against selangor. you notice the pattern, in all the debates that year, we only got govt once, thats when i drew once out of 4 times. the rest were opps. which means, my plan to be a dormant speaker didnt work out...and thats a good reason to be an agnostic....some external force were agaisnt me, and i retaliated by ignoring its existence! ok, back to selangor, where we lost. hmm, dichotomy was too hard on them, even the judges, because they didnt get the idea. some of us cried, some went emo, the rest were just blur....i was drinking coke. so then, we sat in the hall while the 2nd debate was on between penang and some other state....and perhaps their idea of "car bumper" worked fine on the judges. after that, the host's students, was it st thomas?....came to us and said we should have won agaisnt selangor...coming from complete strangers, i was kinda touched by their sincerity....all of us were perhaps. but we didnt sulk for long. when we got back to the room, all hell broke loose. went for the tour to the clay factory, bought our pengetua a gift which he seems to forget the meaning behind it, got this stupid "pelawat" sticker from the factory, and we found lots of them on selangor's door...that was unity...and a classic. we went to the muzeum, making some video, dicovered that art was porn, and still is in the art gallery. look, the dragon thing was banging that man, and it was obvious...so if its not porn, im a saint! i fitted a whole ice cream cone in my mouth, guess vj still has the photo somewhere. back to the room, where me, mani and karmen didnt bother socializing with the rest, while putra and vijay lost the track of time admist all of their moments in getting to know yet more people. of course, the grudge against selangor was still there, and we always support whatever team that was agaisnt them. by some jinx, they got in the finals, and most of us thought they didnt deserve to be there at all. i mean, denying you are the government when that stupid card on the table is saying you are is complete foolish. at least, sabah beat them in the end, and we admit it, sabah was a good team. they had this amazing synchronization and uniformity we have never seen before. went back straight after the finals, and again we terrorized klia. we were pushing the trolley with putra on it. we were young and bored, thats all i got in my defence.

i'll do 2008 on the next post. ciao