KUCHING – St Joseph’s Private School’s team of Ian Dylan Chai Ee Ann, Joshua Paren and Samuel Chan Han Wei returned this year to win the Swinburne Sarawak Inter-School Debating Championship for the second year in a row.
Debating all the way through the five preliminary rounds, and then through the octo-finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals to the Grand Finals, the team met the dark horse team of SMK Green Road consisting of Alyssa Yap Xin Yi, Eric Khiu Cheng Ying and Joshua Jong Qian Rong.
In the Grand Finals with the motion of This House supports a ‘divide and rule’ policy as the best form of governance in post conflict states, St Joseph’s Private School on the Opposition side, won the debate by a whisker with a split decision of 5 to 4. Joshua Paren won the Best Debater in the Final award, also for the second time in a row.
The Junior Championship was won by the team from Kolej Yayasan Saad, Melaka consisting of Arianna binti Saiful, Caelystar Valentina Ng May Zher, and Subhashini a/p Ramis. They defeated local stalwarts SMK Batu Lintang, comprising Aaron Simson, Abigail Sylvester and Melvin Lee in a 6-3 split decision on the motion This House regrets citizen journalism. At this debate, Aaron Simson won the Best Debater in the Final award.
Notably, the Indonesian team from SMA Santu Petrus consisting of Crystal Tanika, Patricia Kiarra Adelaide and Teresa Yokia Novantia won the Most Promising Team in the Senior Category. First timers at the Swinburne Sarawak Championship, they broke second in the senior category, an excellent achievement for a team that had little debate experience outside their school.
The Most Promising Team in the Junior Category went to SMK Batu Lintang. Consisting of Aaron Simson, Abigail Sylvester and Melvin Lee, they made it all the way to the finals despite being relatively novice debaters.
In the junior category, the Most Improved Team award went to Lodge International’s team of Jason Chai Jian Hao, Lau King Yung and Nathan Ho, while in the senior category, the award went to SMK Green Road’s Alyssa Yap Xin Yi, Eric Khiu Cheng Ying and Joshua Jong Qian Rong who made it all the way to the Grand Finals.
Teams from St Joseph’s Private School won the Best Sarawakian Team award in both junior and senior categories, while top speaker scores in the preliminary rounds were also dominated by the school. Joshua Paren took home the most awards winning the Best Overall Debater, Best Debater in the Final, and Champion in the Senior Category as well as the Swinburne Engagement Award titles. In the Junior Category, Joshua’s schoolmate, Jaypeth Balang, won Best Overall Debater, Best Speaker of English and was also one of the team to win Best Sarawakian team in the Junior Category.
With Joshua Paren from St Joseph’s Private School leading the top debaters of the tournament based on the preliminary rounds in the Senior Category, his teammate Ian Dylan Chai Ee Ann took the second Best Debater award. Third Best Debater went to Walter Jeremiah Law Shuo Wang from SMK Batu Lintang and fourth to Kuhan Karttikeyn a/l Ravichandran from Kolej Yayasan Saad while two debaters tied at fifth place: Alya Imanina binti Dzulkhalif from Kolej DPH Abdillah and Samuel Chan Han Wei from St Joseph’s Private School.
In the Junior Category, behind Jaypeth Balang, the second Best Debater award went to Nia Katarina binti Abdul Razak from Kolej Yayasan Saad and third Best Debater went to Aaron Simson from SMK Batu Lintang. There was a four-way tie for fourth Best Debater: Adelle Ruth from SM Lodge, Arianna Binti Saiful from Kolej Yayasan Saad, Dylan Wong Yun Xian from SMK St Joseph and Jordan Jong Ying Yuan who was also from SMK St Joseph.
The award for the Best Speaker of English in the Senior Category was won by Thomas Brabbs from Tunku Putra School while Jaypeth Balang took the title in the Junior Category.