Melanie Tedja Finally Wins the Founders' Trophy

Melanie Tedja and Sinta Satriana

Former Universitas Indonesia and Monash debater Melanie Tedja finally won the Founders' Trophy, the one championship that had slipped away from her fingers since 2003. Before FT 2011, she had reached 6 FT grand finals, topped the speaker tab 3 times and brought home numerous book prizes.

This year, Melanie, who graduated from UI in 2005, partnered with fellow UI alumna Sinta Satriana and broke that jinx with dominating fashion. The pair emerged from all of their debates as the winning team while Melanie bagged her fourth FT best speaker award and won books from 5 of the 8 rounds of debate.

From the role of Opening Opposition in the grandfinal, the pair knocked down the motion "This House Would Let Papuans Exercise Their Right to Self-Determination", outdebating OG-Caessar Pronocitro & Novellisa Wirid (Ex-UGM), CG-Indra Kusuma & Irene Severina (UI) and CO-Ahmad Naufal Dai & Rifan Ibnu Rahman (UI/ITB). FT is Indonesia's oldest British Parliamentary competition and most competitive open tournament. It is annually hosted by the English Debating Society Universitas Indonesia.