The University of Indonesia team, represented by three students from various FMIPA UI study programs: Eduardus Erlangga (Actuarial Science 2017), Brenda Mutiara (Mathematics 2017), and Elvina Vania (Statistics 2017), won first place in the Indonesian Language Debate Competition at the 2019 National Debate Competition for Elementary School Teacher Education (PGSD) at the Faculty of Education, University of Indonesia (UPI).
The competition, themed “Quo vadis: Agent of Change and Agent of Conversation for Millennial Students,” was held by the Indonesian Education University (UPI) from November 29 to December 1, 2019, at UPI, Bandung, West Java.
Eduardus, the team leader, explained the stages of the competition he and his team faced.
As a first step, the three students were required to write an essay. In their essay, entitled “Students as Agents of Environmental Change,” Eduard and his team outlined a creative and objective idea based on a predetermined theme, based on logical arguments and supported by data from reliable sources.
“So, for this essay, we had to develop an argument based on the theme, and it had to be creative and objective,” said Eduard.
He also outlined the essay’s ideas, namely the role of students as agents of positive change in all fields, including education, social issues, economics, culture, and so on, to support the government’s program to create superior human resources.
Furthermore, Eduard continued, his team emphasized that the students must position themselves as Agents of Conversation, meaning they must be able to liaise with the aspirations of the wider community to the government through studies that serve as recommendations for public policy products, so that these public policies can resolve existing societal problems.
In this essay stage, his team competed with 30 other teams to secure the top eight positions and advance to the next stage, the elimination round.
In the preliminary round, the three defeated the Padjadjaran University (UNPAD) team. Their victory over UNPAD advanced the UI team to the semifinals, where they faced the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) team.
The UI team’s victory, after defeating the UGM team in the semifinals, advanced them to face the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) team in the final. The UI team emerged as the top winner, defeating IPB in the final round.
Brenda, one of the team members, revealed that their preparation for the preliminary round was relatively short, as the competition required each team to debate one topic based on a motion (debate theme) in each match, using formal, polite, and clear Indonesian.
Brenda explained that they only had time to draft the motion, which they received from the committee on Monday (November 25th), on Wednesday (November 27th). This meant they only had two days to prepare it before the preliminary round, which was held on Friday (November 29th).
“We received the motions for the preliminary round on Monday; there were six motions. The preliminary round was on Friday, and we only started preparing for it on Wednesday night, and even then, we weren’t finished,” said Brenda.
Even so, the team representing UI remained optimistic and enthusiastic. All three admitted to being proud and at times in disbelief at having won the debate competition.
Another team member, Vania, hopes that through her and her team’s achievements, she can increase the enthusiasm and active participation of fellow students in participating in debate competitions. She believes that currently, enthusiasm among students for participating in debate competitions is still relatively low.
“I really hope that other students will also actively participate in debate competitions, because I think enthusiasm and interest in debate competitions in Indonesia are still rare,” said Vania.
