IVED 2012: Bakrie Takes National Crown, Makes History

Aryo Febrian (Universitas Bakrie 1) speaks in IVED 2012 Grand Final 

Universitas Bakrie is now part of the small elite club of national debating champions. #3 Bakrie 1 (Aryo Febrian, Mutiara Hapsari, Yudha Mustafa) won the 15th Indonesian Varsities English Debate last night, dashing Universitas Indonesia's hope of grabbing the national title for the ninth time. Seven out of nine grandfinal judges thought #1 UI 1 (Aulia Anggita, Bramesada Prasastyoga, Egalita Irfan) had come short in blocking Bakrie's proposal to require multinational corporations give 5% of their profit to development funds.

The victory recorded a list of milestones. The school, first established in 2006, is the youngest by far among the colleges that have won IVED. The 5 other institutions all are more than three decades old. The winning speakers are part of the inaugural generation of Bakrie debaters. Last night was not only their first IVED win, it was their first victorious campaign in a major nationwide debating tournament. Before IVED 2012, they even had not debated beyond the IVED prelims. In IVED 2010, Aryo, Mutiara and Yudha also debated together but they only ended 10 spots below the last breaking team.

Signs of progress became clear last year. In February 2011, Yudha and Mutiara reached the semifinals of the ALSA Unpad E-Challenge. In May, Aryo and Yudha were part of a Bakrie team that topped the tab of the ALSA UI E-Comp, the longest running debate tournament in Indonesia, although they failed to go far in the knockouts. A few weeks later, they bagged their first trophy in Macau of all places. Aryo and Yudha were members of a squad that won the EFL category of the 2011 United Asian Debating Championships. Later on, Aryo reached the last debate of the National Universities English Debating Championships and two other grand finals, with 3 different partners. He also ended as fourth best in the 2011 Debater of the Year list. They were waiting for their big moment and it came in the country's top tournament.

The winners of IVED 2012 proved it is possible for any Indonesian university, even new ones, to excel in English competitive debating and compete with more established institutions as long as they work hard. The best novice team award went to Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta 1 (Rasman, Retno Rahma Safitri, Tika Destiratri) that defeated Universitas Hasanuddin 2 (Erwin Katunde, Framita Rahman, Maman) in a separate final.