How it all began

I've been fortunate enough to taste some success in international-level university debating. Not as much as i would have liked to have, but enough to make me believe that it was time well spent.

But it all started with lots of hard work, sweat, blood and tears.

In those days, IIUM was divided into two campuses: the Matriculation and Main campus - there were about 15 minutes apart by car. Training sessions were held at the Main Campus, sometimes even until very late night, past midnight. Transportation was a problem so it happened very often that to move from the Matriculation campus to the Main campus to attend training was not easy. Normally taking the bus to the Main Campus, we finished late enough that there were no more public buses to take us back. So we walked.

It was something special those times together i spent with others who felt as passionately about debating as i did. Late at night, hardly any traffic on the road, the group of us walking back to matrics after a tough debating training session - we would make up songs, play word games and look at the stars. This was the time in which we bonded as a unit and some of the best debating teams to grace the university's proud tradition came from this group.

There was one day in particular that sticks to my mind. We were walking home, talking when someone came up with the idea to start a "running poem" - it started from the front of the line (we walked in an evenly spaced-out line) where the first person would come up with a single line. Then the next person would add to it, trying to make it rhyme with the first. Everyone would take a turn, and before long, we had a real poem in the works.

Sadly, i can't remember what was said that night, but it was something special and the hour or so it took us to walk home that night lasted just a brief moment.

These days, that's something i wonder about the current batch of IIUM debaters. Azahan was telling me the other day over our sushi dinner, that with Sani leaving, the last of the "Great Ones" was retiring; he doesn't believe that the current group of IIUM debaters have the same talent, drive and dedication the retiring batch had. I disagree with him and anyone else who suggests the same. I believe that if indeed the current batch seems to be less impressive than past debaters, its because retirees of Azahan's generation have not done enough to build the juniors up. Above all else, the thing that made IIUM "great" is not because we have some god-given gift, but because, in the past, each outgoing group of debaters built the comaraderie and instilled the belief of confidence in the younger ones. They rarely thought about themselves first; people like Taufik, Latif and Ganesh were always thinking about how good they wanted their juniors to be, that how good we were, would be the true test of their legacy.

My criticism lies with the current retiring batch of debaters. With a few exceptions, i throw the gauntlent down to them and ask them to explain the current state of affairs in IIUM debating. If indeed it is true that the juniors in IIU debating are not progressing at a pace that will produce world champions (7th in the world was a looong time ago), then it is the fault of the SENIORS and no one else's.