Following days of rigorous discourse over several rounds of debate on contentious topics such as Israel-Palestine and policies of international community with participants from more than 86 countries, Bangladesh was overwhelmed with the outcome of their performances.
For the first time in Bangladesh debating history, highest number of university teams reached knockout rounds of the tournament in the English as Second Language (ESL) category, which puts Bangladesh in the same league with most European, South American and Asian countries.
Five teams from Brac University, Institute of Business Administration-Dhaka University (IBA-DU), Islamic University of Technology (IUT), and Dhaka University had advanced to the top ESL teams. Rishad Sharif and Raiha Nawal from DU went on to become runners up at the ESL final debate.
Being the third best in ESL category, Saad Ashraf and Wasifa Noshin from IBA-DU broke country record as the first and only team to make it to the English as Primary Language (EPL) category, where their competition were teams from Oxford, Harvard and countries with English as native language.
To top the overwhelming success of the Bangladesh debating community, for the first time a Bangladeshi’s team ranked top 10 in the world, and was also the only Asian team in that league beating teams from universities like London School of Economics, University of Oxford, and Harvard University. In addition to being part of world’s top 10 team, Mubarrat Wassey, a student of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), also became the second best ESL speaker of the tournament.
With top ESL speaker titles in WUDC two years in a row and titles of being finalist and semi-finalist at several prestigious international debating tournaments like Oxford Inter Varsity and Australs, Mubarrat is now one of the most promising debaters in the world.
How did you get interested in debating?
My brother used to debate. After tournaments he would tell stories about what he did and people he met, which got me interested. Eventually in grade 10, I decided to go to Pre-Worlds debating tournament, which is the most prominent national tournament in Bangladesh. I found out I was not particularly bad at it, especially as a beginner, so I decided to stick to it.
You started your debating career in Bangladesh. Why did you to move to Malaysia?
I was at North South University for a year, but I decided to pursue a university that would maximize my debating potential. Universities in Bangladesh generally suffer from a lack of funding.
That was my main motivation to go to IIUM, which has arguably the best Asian debating club right now, and it is very generous about funding debaters to international tournaments. Although I had to start university all over again by going to Malaysia, it was still worth it.
What have you gained from debating beyond trophies and titles?
Debating has changed my life like nothing else. It opens your mind, because it challenges you to think from other people’s perspectives.
This is a problem we have, especially living in a homogenous country such as Bangladesh, where almost everyone is of the same race and religion. We have very little diversity, and easily take offense if someone says something mildly contentious. Debating challenged me to think about groups like the LGBT community and ethnic minorities – how they think, why they think the way they do, and why they must be treated respectfully.
It also opens your mind because of the kind of people you meet. Debating has allowed me to travel to numerous countries, and most of the time costing nothing because debaters get funded to go almost everywhere. That opens up your boundaries.
We make friends all over the world. My Facebook friend list is really diverse. I have friends from Palestine, Israel, and countries I have never heard of before interacting with people from there I met at tournaments. The world is full of amazing people.
How has debating affected your thinking process?
What debating has taught me the most is not to be judgmental. Different people have different perspectives for different reasons. Often we do not know the context that people have been in so it is best not to judge them.
The other thing people often don’t realise is that debating is insanely competitive. Debating is the world’s largest non-sporting youth congregation. Every year we have WUDC with more than 400 teams participating from around the world. It really forces you to push your limits. It is not good enough that you speak good English. There is more to it than shows; you have to analyse situations with great depth.
I remember once my university’s deputy director accompanied the debating team to one of the tournaments. He being an erudite academician was shocked beyond his wits to see how well people were debating.
Motions are given only 15 minutes before the actual debate starts. With a team of two, you have to give seven minute speeches each on a single topic. You have to come up with new arguments which other teams cannot think of.
After watching our debate, he said something that really moved me: “It sounds as if these people did a PhD on that particular topic. That’s how debating sounds to me.”
You have to read up a lot for coming up with the level of analysis required for different kinds of arguments. Not just that, you also have to explain what you read up in a manner that people understand you.
You have to analyse in detail each and every argument that you bring in because everyone else is doing it. Debating maximises your potential in terms of how intelligent and critical you can be in terms of analysing and understanding things. It goes beyond mere presentation skills. It’s a life skill that a CGPA cannot give you.
Debating teaches me more than a classroom can. Maybe it cannot teach math, but life skills which I’d like to think can take you a long way in life.
What is your winning strategy?
The biggest thing we need to understand is that there are no shortcuts. Your passion is what will drive you.
If you want to do well it has to be because you love doing this because, at times, it will drive you nuts. It is so competitive and difficult that at some point you will hit stages where you will not know whether or not you will succeed. So if you don’t love the game it is not worth it.
Let me tell you about my debating partner Syed Saddiq. A few years ago he could not speak English properly, and was quite naive. He was the kind of person who debate club recruiters would think has no future, but today he is part of one of the top ten teams in the world.
In recent history, we are the only Asian team to reach that level. Most teams who are at the top are from Sydney, Melbourne, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and mostly UK and Canadian teams. IIUM is the only Asian team to have reached to this level and it is because of the sheer hard work and determination we put into it. The one reason Saddiq made it to the top is because of his passion.
Not knowing English is something which you can improve with practice. I have seen Saddiq learn English words by writing them down on his hands.
Beyond learning English, you have to watch other debaters going at it to familiarise yourself with the kind of arguments used in debates.
Next, I would say, reading has no alternatives when it comes to gathering knowledge.
Apart from that, practice speaking every day. Don’t be ashamed of speaking in front of the mirror and giving speeches. Record yourself to track your progress.
Take feedbacks from judges after debating sessions end. Take criticisms positively even if you don’t always agree. Work on your problems. Train with other people.
What do you think of the debaters you are training in Bangladesh?
Everyone has the potential to be what they want to become. Anyone can become anything.
When I started debating, only a few years ago, no Bangladeshi had ever advanced to the knockout stages to the ESL category, let alone in the open category. No Bangladeshi team had made it beyond the quarter finals of an Asian tournament. I never thought I had enough potential to be one of the top ten teams in the world. Until now I used to idolise people in the category I am in right now. So all I would say is human potential is limitless; try to reach your potential.
Whenever I am here from Malaysia I try to reach out to debaters, not just those at school, but also in universities. The biggest problem that Bangladeshi debaters face right now is a lack of exposure to international debating. Unfortunately, the Bangladeshi government does not fund school children to go abroad to participate in international tournaments. Very few universities here have any formal funding.
Most debaters have to find sponsorship on their own and most sponsors are reluctant to fund random debaters to go abroad. As a result most of the debaters have to depend on their personal finance which is a barrier, especially to talented individuals from the lower or middle class.
The best training a debater can get is the opportunity to attend as many debating tournaments as possible, especially international ones. In addition to very little funding, universities here impose a performance based selection process which bars the potential of new talents. For new debaters to perform they need to learn first; giving them opportunities to attend tournaments is the first step towards enabling their learning.
I think this is the biggest challenge we are facing now and the biggest thing I benefited from by going to IIUM. They have given me the funding to go anywhere giving me the opportunity to debate against learn from the best. That level of competition has challenged me to bring the best out of me.
Nonetheless, I would like to add that Bangladesh debating is much better than what it used to be. If you look at the recent performances of the Bangladeshi teams at Malaysia WUDC this year and at Berlin WUDC 2013 when the first Bangladeshi team won the ESL championship title for the first time in history, the community is making tremendous progress. Thus in terms of exposure to young debaters, we are slightly better because the community itself has better debaters now. I still think this is not enough; we can do much better with more exposure to international tournaments.