Life as a foundation student at the Centre of Foundation Studies International Islamic University of Malaysia (CFS IIUM) never ceases to amaze me.
Apart from our classes, assingments, presantations, test and exams, there are always activities going on through out our ecademic year.
In the middle of May, as I was preparing myself for the upcoming CFS IIUM Moke Parliment, I was thrilled to receive an invitation from the Orator’s Club to participate in the 2022 International Islamic University of Malaysia Rector’s Cup!
Unlike Dean’s Cup which is an intra-foundation tournament among the CFS students conducted in Bahasa Melayu, English and Arabic; the Rector’s Cup is an inter-campus debate tournament only conducted in English, combining students of all levels of study from all campuses (Gombak, Kuantan, Pagoh, and Gambang) for one grand competition.
And while boths cups are conducted in Asian Parliamentary style, Rector’s Cup is not a yearly enent with the previous tounament was held in 20…..
In his speech, the Rector, Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said that this is the first time where the final participants of Rector’s Cup come from all four campuses; and not only from CFS and the Gombak campus.
Aside of being a grand debate tournament for all IIUM students, Rector’s Cup also aims at training the CFS students to debate with and among seniors debaters from IIUM.
Students are matched at random to form teams, such so that each contestant cannot pick their own team mates.
It is part of the challenge; to make us learn to work together to form a strong team despite not knowing each other before we were ‘thrown’ together as teammates.
I was placed in TeamA together with Muhammad Farid, a first-year medical student from IIUM Kuantan campus who is our senior team mate and another foundation studies student studying Arabic Language, Ain Aliah.
Compared to most of the other teams, we, the Harumanis was an underdog. For both Farid and I, this is our second experience in debating while it was the first for Aliah.
However, Alhamdulillah, we managed to struggle all the way to the final match against one of the strongest teams, B-esties represented by Hanafie Haniki (a CFS student studying Law), Annisa Batrisyia (an English for International Communication degree student from Pagoh campus) and Maruf, a Bangladeshi PhD student from the Gombak campus.
The match was judged by three adjucators, Muhammad Abdul Latif, Elia Al-Hakim, and Sarrah Salihan – both of the latter are degree students from the Gombak campus.
The chief adjucator, Muhammad Abdul Latif is also the Deputy Director of the IIUM World Debate and Oratory Centre (IWON), who has also served as the judge for the Grand Finals of the World Debate Championship.
The motion theme for the final match was Philosophy, and the motion was as follows:
After a virtual coin toss a few hours before the event, my team was announced as the government, whereas B-esties went out as the opposition.
Right after our afternoon classes, we rushed to meet up with all of our team mates for our first physical meeting.
Congratulations to B-esties. And my heartiest congratulations to my team mates for trying doing very best to reach this far.
Thank you
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