Jakarta-based London School of Public Relations and Malang's Universitas Ma Chung are bent on attracting international teams to compete in their tournaments this year. However, timing issues have challenged the ambitions of these two private universities that have not yet built strong profiles in the domestic circuit.
LSPR intended to hold the 2nd International Public Speaking and Debate Competition from April 12 to 14 but had to push back the date to June after knowing the plan would clash with the ALSA UI E-Comp, the country's longest-running English debate contest. The organizers want half of the participants foreign. It is unclear whether this means there would be a cap on Indonesian teams.Sixteen institutions, only 4 of them from outside Indonesia, joined the 1st IPSDC in 2010. The debating event with the highest number of international teams, 42 out of 60, held in Indonesia was the 2007 Asian Universities Debating Championships at Institut Teknologi Bandung.
Ma Chung's plan may also hit a snag. The university has scheduled its International Debating Competition for February 15 to 17, which are also the dates of the Asian English Olympics, a regional debating tournament held by Binus University that has been promoted to universities across the continent for months. International teams are likely to prefer the more prepared AEO. The timing is also odd because Malang will be host to the Indonesian Varsities English Debate from February 7 to 11. Non-Malang IVED contestants might find it costly to send teams again to the hillside city less than a week later or force them to extend their stay. IDC organizers also plan to have individual speakers from 8 invited countries to have a go at each other in a so-called master round. IPSDC, IDC and AEO all have chosen British Parliamentary as their format.
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