The National University of Singapre (NUS) successfully emerged as the new champions for the Malaysia & Singapore Higher Institution Mandarin Debate Tournanment after defeating University Putra Malaysia (UPM) in the final match at Southern College, Johor Bahru recently.
This annual Debate tournament running for its 7th consecutive year, with the largest number of participation; 16 teams from Malaysia and Singapore Higher Institution attracted thousands of audience nationwide for the 3-day competition.
Interesting debating topics like whether Singapore’s recent GE is going to effect Malaysia’s next elections attracted a full house at Dewan Dato’ Seri Joseph Chong in Southern college.
This interesting political topic stirred a thought-provoking debate among the 7 judges before the highly anticipated final results was announced .
The organizing chairperson, Mr. Mok Chek Hou in his closing remark, mentioned that he was impressed by the growing number of participation over the past 7 years and revealed that the organizer, Johor Bahru Tiong-Hua Association and Southern College planned to internationalised the debating competition and would invite the Australian University and South East Asia University to join the competition next year since they have shown keen interest.
Meanwhile, the Guest of Honor, Dato’ Tan Liang Soong, Deputy President of Johor Bahru Tiong-Hua Association, in his speech mentioned that the organizer had been very bold to include political topics in this international level mandarin debate. It is however, good to nurture a positive mindset towards critical thinking in higher educational institutions, and not purely focus on academic studies alone.
Young undergraduates should be given the chance and exposure to explore and debate politics. Freedom to intellectualize the topic is a healthy form of mental grooming. Perhaps it is good for the government to look into the Akta / panduan Institutusi Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia Section 15 & 16 to allow room for young undergraduate to participate in political activities.
Team which successfully made it to the semi-final competititon are NUS, UPM, University Malaya (UM) and Multi-Media University ( MMU).