#1EFL Bakrie University (Ammar Syah Anwar, Aryo Febrian, Yudha Mustafa) grabbed the top prize in the 2011 United Asian Debating Championships' English-as-Foreign-Language category today after defeating fellow Indonesians from #7EFL London School of Public Relations (Airin Tirtayadi, Christin Berlina, Nadia Meuthia) in the final in Macao. Ammar Syah Anwar became the best EFL speaker in the tournament while Yudha Mustafa got the highest score in the final, completing Bakrie's success.
The Bakrie team successfully defended the motion that "This House Believes That Regional Proximity Should Be Prioritized When Handing Out Aid" and gave their school its first ever debating trophy. Bakrie squads reached the semifinal round of 3 national-scale tournaments this year and topped the tab with a perfect record in the recent ALSA UI E-Comp. Their rising form peaked at UADC, the most prestigious competition in Asia. They reached the 28th spot on the main tab with a respectable 5-3 scorecard and broke into the EFL knockouts as the highest-ranked team. Their losses in the preliminary round came from matches with Asian powerhouses National University of Singapore and Ateneo de Manila University.
Bakrie and LSPR never participated in UADC before this year's edition. They also have never won a major debating tournament in Indonesia. However, their hardwork and tenacity found reward on the international stage and proved they are now forces to be reckon with. They performed better than teams from more well-known Indonesian debating institutions that competed in the UADC and squads from other ESL countries like Japan, China and Thailand.
A team from Institut Teknologi Bandung won the EFL trophy in the previous UADC in Bangkok, which also saw an all-Indonesian final. The Macao event was the second UADC after the unification of two Asian-level competitions - the Asian Intervarsity Debating Championships (All-Asians) and the Asian Universities Debating Championships (AUDC). The latter tournament came about after several top schools broke away from the former outfit in 2005.
Indonesian teams first competed in an Asian-level debating championship in 1997, a milestone that led to the proliferation of competitive debating into the country. A squad from Universitas Indonesia in 2000 broke into the top 16 of the All-Asians, the first time any Indonesian team proceeded into the knockout rounds of an overseas debating competition.
Speaking on behalf of BIPEDS, we are very very happy to see the rise of Bakrie University, LSPR and IPB. They were friendly & sincere outside the debate room, but were very formidable competitors inside the debate chamber. We hope all Indonesian teams rise to the level of their professionalism and competition!
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