NDC-NES 2012: Bakrie Rules, Sheds Dark Horse Status

Universitas Bakrie proved its February victory in the Indonesian Varsities English Debate, the 3-on-3 national championship, was no fluke. It became the first school to win a second nationwide tournament this year after #3 Bakrie B (Aryo Febrian, Mutiara Hapsari, Alifia Firliani) defeated #1 Binus International B (Rajkumar Narendra, Andrew Sadeli, Melisa Irene) today in the final of the National Debating Competition-National Economics Seminar at Universitas Padjadjaran. Aryo, who also topped the speaker tab, and Mutiara were part of the triumphant team at IVED, making them the only debaters with 2 trophies so far in 2012.

Bakrie had not won a nationwide championship before IVED 2012. It was seen as a dark horse for the past three years. Its emergence became apparent when a team, which also had Aryo, took home the EFL trophy of the 2011 United Asian Debating Championships. With today's victory, Bakrie has cemented its status as a major force in Indonesian debating. This is an amazing feat for a school that only started to open classes six years ago. It only received full university status in 2009.