Malang Debaters Sweep Into DOTY List

The lastest changes in the 2012 IndoDebate Debater of the Year list did not come from anything in March; they derived from a tournament in February and almost all of the new entrants are Malang students. Due to accessibility issues, the tabulation results from the International Debating Championship at Universitas Ma Chung, which took place from February 15 to 17, only came to light in March. Contrary to the event's billing, the data showed there was no non-Indonesian debater. Moreover, most of the 20 participating teams came from Malang, where the university is located, and nobody from outside that city slipped into the top 10 speaker list.

However, the DOTY list still incorporated the results because IDC Ma Chung did not limit participation and there were teams from 4 other provinces, rendering it into a nationwide competition.Universitas Brawijaya debaters Dungga Nur Prayogo and Nur Luthfi Hidayatullah won the tournament and their schoolmate Rasuna Rizky Utami topped the speaker tab.

Leading Indonesian debating institutions skipped the tourney because it was too close to the nationals IVED, which was held a few days before also in Malang. The situation opened a window of opportunity for new names, many little known outside East Java, to enter DOTY. This is positive for the list as it displays talent outside the western area of Java, where most of the powerhouses reside. Hopefully, these entrants will show they can also excel in future tournaments outside of their hometown.

There is an additional layer of sorting used in the lastest table. Before the last level of sorting, the alphabetical order of names, the rank in the previous month is now a consideration in order to give a little reward to consistency. Click here for the complete table. The top 10 frontrunners as of March 2012 are:

1. Rifan Ibnu Rahman (Institut Teknologi Bandung)
2. Aryo Febrian (Universitas Bakrie)
3. Rendi Prahara (Universitas Padjadjaran)
4. Egalita Irfan (Universitas Indonesia)
5. Bramesada Prasastyoga (Universitas Indonesia)
6. Ashila Reza (Universitas Padjadjaran)
7. Mutiara Hapsari (Universitas Bakrie)
8. Rosmiyana (Binus University)
9. Rasuna Rizky Utami (Universitas Brawijaya)
10. Nadiyah (Universitas Negeri Malang)

While the Polinela tournament in Lampung starts in late March, it will conclude in April and its results will be incorporated in the next DOTY update. Other events that will also affect the next list include an open at Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya and an economics debate at Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung.

     

LSPR, Ma Chung to Hold Ambitious International Comps

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.