Thursday, 13 October 2016 | MYT 7:56 AM
IIUM debaters are Asian British Parliamentary champions
PETALING JAYA: It looks like the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) debate team has made a “hobby” of collecting trophies.
It was another feather in the cap for the team when they won this year's Asian British Parliamentary (ABP) Debating Championship in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The ABP is widely regarded as Asia's second most prestigious debating competition.
To top it off, both IIUM speakers, Mubarrat Wassey, 25, and Ameera Natasha Moore, 23, won the first and second overall best speaker awards respectively.
Ameera is a Malaysian law student while Mubarrat is an economics student from Bangladesh. Both represent Malaysia under their university banner.
The grand finals saw a four-cornered fight where IIUM emerged victorious against opponents Singapore Management University (SMU), Nanyang Technological Univeristy (NTU) and Yale-NUS college (YNC).
Mubarrat.
In the finals, IIUM defended the motion, “This house prefers a world where individuals, upon specific deliberate contemplation, know the outcomes of their choices.”
More than 80 teams of two speakers each took part with participants representing universities from all across the region.
Indonesia’s Prasetiya Mulya Business School (BSD) hosted the tournament this year.
Last year, Singapore's NTU walked away with the championship trophy.
Ameera.
The Oct 7-12 tournament ran in the British Parliamentary format, which pitches four teams of two against one another.
Teams were only given 15 minutes to prepare after motions were revealed, and were not allowed to receive outside assistance or access to electronic aid.
Debate topics throughout the competition range from philosophy, law, human rights, women's issues, social issues, international relations, politics, economics, and education.
The IIUM debaters have been keeping to a successful winning spree this year, having clinched three major titles back to back - the ABP, the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championship (Australs) trophy in July and the United Asian Debating Championship (UADC) trophy last June.
This marks a clean sweep of the three biggest regional tournaments.
Malaysian teams are now looking to making their mark at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) in December.
