KTJ International School-Oxbridge Debate!

Held for the third year in a row, this year's Kolej Tuanku Ja'afar (KTJ)-Oxbridge Debate saw more than 300 participants from all over Malaysia registered for this year's competition. Themed "ASEAN: Dominant or Dominated", the event kick-started with a speech given by the guest of honour, YAM Tunku Dara Tunku Tan Sri Naquiah bt. Almarhum Tuanku Ja’afar, a renowned KTJ trustee as well as namesake of Naquiah House, a junior boarding house in the school. Her excellent oratory was then followed by a plenary debate by four of the Malaysian Oxbridge Society's members – Zubin Rada Krishnan, Nathaniel Jinho Clement, Patrick Helson, and Harith Muneer.

In the debate was also Chairman Mark Disney who provided prompts and challenging discussions towards the debaters and later ending the session with a Q&A and straw poll from the audience. Results showed a win for the opposition Cambridge, but looking only at this point it would be a gross understatement towards the dexterity involved in both parties' skill and contribution to the topic.

Following the debate was a series of workshops conducted by aforementioned debaters themselves as well as representatives from Oxford and Cambridge University from the UK. Students involved were split based on their stance of the motion and led to classrooms for the forum to begin. Watching the interaction between the students and their supervisors was fascinating, revealing the experience of our guests as well as the eagerness of the participating students towards the topic of ASEAN, taken from the stance of science and innovation, arts and culture as well as politics. There were many different methods employed by the teachers so to speak from group discussions between students to interactive exchanges of ideas between the representative and the participant, not only in terms of improving their stances on their individual motions but also in their speaking technique.

KTJ student Frieda Moses described the 2-hour long discussion in the Arts and Culture council as "Not only an eye-opener, but also effective". She also added saying that she wished she had joined the debate when it was first organized in 2012!

After spending the entire morning trashing out points for both sides of the topic, 3 students were chosen to represent each council in the final student debates held later that afternoon in the Tuanku Ja'afar Auditorium.

First time debater and winner of the Best Speaker Award, Kirthana Kurunathan from Beaconhouse Sri Inai, even said that her inaugural experience at KTJ as "A great confidence booster and would definitely continue debating in the future".

The whole event was concluded with a speech by school prefect, Zafri Iskandar, before those present began making their own way off. All in all, the forum was a huge success, not only from the amount of positive feedback it obtained but also in light of the amount we as a school have gleaned from this valuable experience. With that, we go back to waiting, eagerly, for the next Oxbridge and KTJ debate forum in 2015.

For more information on KTJ, visit www.ktj.edu.my, email registrar@ktj.edu.my or call (+606) 758 5107

This article was written by Aileen Loo, KTJ Upper Sixth Form