UNAIR NEWS – Three students of Universitas Airlangga made another brilliant achievement in a national debate competition. The debate team consisting of Fasya Aurellia, Achmad Ghiffari, and Prashanti Lakshita Putri Ariadhi managed to win 1st Place in the National Indonesian Language Debate Competition.
The national debate competition was organized by the Regional Representative Council of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (DPD PSI) Surabaya. The competition themed Young Generation Collaborative Energy for Surabaya was held offline .
Achmad Ghiffari said that the team’s biggest motivation was giving the best and coming out as winners. It drove the team to always be optimal in every round of debate.
“This debate competition is also the first offline debate competition during the pandemic. So, we want to close (this year, ed) with a win,” he said.
Before participating in the competition, continued Ari, the team had to pass an essay selection first. The essay they wrote was related to socio-political issues in Surabaya that the government and political parties should pay attention to.
“ Alhamdulillah , we passed the essay selection and were entitled to compete with 13 teams from various universities in Indonesia,” he said.
In the semifinals, the team faced the State University of Surabaya by debating a motion about increasing the women’s quota in parliament, while in the final round, we faced the University of Surabaya with a motion regarding the discourse of indirect executive election.
Many debate competitions discuss social, political, economic, and educational issues. In the semifinals, the team received a motion regarding the discourse of increasing quotas for women in parliament. Meanwhile, in the final round, the team discussed the discourse on the electoral system through the representation system.
“The debate is going on very fiercely with quite high tension. Alhamdulillah, we won the debate with a score of 4-1 and came out as champions,” he said.
The Communication Studies student said that the team had known each other for a long time because they were both members of the Airlangga Debating Society (ADS). Even though it was the first time they participated in the competition as a team, the teams began to find chemistry as the competition progressed.
“ADS was very supportive during the preparation and the competition. We were facilitated by training with coaches and most importantly, of course, we gained constant moral support from UKM friends, “he concluded. (*)
Author: Sandi Prabowo
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
