WSDC 2012: Indonesia Takes #25, Speakers Enter EFL List

Team Indonesia 2012 from L to R: Alif Satria,
Cheryl Cosslett, Revaldi and Revian Wirabuana

Team Indonesia bested their pre-tournament rank in the 2012 World Schools Debating Championships, taking the 25th position out of 48 contestants. The team entered the January 17-27 contest as rank #29. All four debaters also got into the Top 20 English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) speakers list. 


Team Indonesia won 4 debates, all with unanimous decisions when they were opposition, and collected 13 judges in the tournament's 8-round preliminary stage. They defeated Zimbabwe, Mongolia, Germany and Botswana and lost to Singapore, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and Israel.


While the result was insufficient to qualify for the knockouts, the team fared better than last year's squad and matched the W-L record in the 2006 and 2007 editions. Indonesia broke twice in WSDC, in 2003 and 2004, with 5 wins in the prelims. The 2010 team also bagged the same amount of victories but came short from making the cut.


Team Indonesia 2012 consists of twins Revaldi and Revian Wirabuana (SMA 4 Denpasar), Cheryl Cosslett (SMA 1 Bogor) and Alif Satria (SMA 8 Yogyakarta). The youngest Cheryl, the only second grader, scored the highest among the four and was the 10th best EFL speaker, immediately followed by Revian at #11EFL. Revaldi came at #15EFL while Alif was right behind him at #16EFL. Their speaker scores ranged from 70.767 to 70.292, an improvement from last year. The best speaker of the 2011 team reached #20 of the EFL list with 69.9. 


Chan Keun Kim from Korea took the best EFL speaker title for the second time in a row with 73.6; he was also #12 overall. The tournament's ultimate best speaker was Singapore's Teoh Ren Jie with 75.262; he also topped the tab last year. Indonesia's speaker point record is in the hands of Soraya Cassandra who scored 72.47 and reached #44 on the main list in WSDC 2005. 


Subarkah Syafruddin, a law student and debater from Universitas Indonesia, coached the team. Former debaters Ruli Manurung from Universitas Indonesia and Vitri Sekarsari from Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, respectively supervised and managed this year's contingent. They received support from the entire Indonesian debating community, including former WSDC debaters and coaches. 


Details of their achievements are as follows:
#10EFL Cheryl Cosslett 70.767
#11EFL Revian Wirabuana 70.729
#15EFL Revaldi Wirabuana 70.357
#16EFL Alif Satria 70.292

1. Prop vs #6/A Singapore (0-3) THW ban alcohol
2. Opp vs #48/H Zimbabwe (3-0) THBT newly democratised Arab states should not allow religious parties to participate in elections
3. Opp vs #38/G Mongolia (3-0) THW allow single parents in prison to raise children behind bars
4. Prop vs #8/B South Korea (1-2) THBT developing nations should place limits on internal rural-urban migration
5. Opp vs #33/F Germany (3-0) THBT police should racial profiling to fight crime
6. Prop vs #13/C United Arab Emirates (0-3) THBT the feminist movement should seek a ban on pornography
7. Prop vs #19/D Israel (0-3) TH supports child labour in the developing world
8. Opp vs #25/E Botswana (3-0) THBT states should enshrine legally actionable socio-economic rights