MSPSBS and PTE Katok to vie for national debate championship

The Maktab Sains Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan debate team arguing against free markets as a solution to the current economic crisis.

Maktab Sains Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan and Katok Sixth Form Centre (PTE Katok) both qualified for the finals of the 14th Brunei Darussalam International English Debating Competition 2010 beating Maktab Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee Billah and Sayyidina Ali Secondary School respectively.
The semi-finals, held yesterday at Maktab Sains, demonstrated the oratory and debating prowess of the participants from all four schools. Issues debated between PTE Katok and Sayyidina Ali dealt with whether wealth should be redistributed, while Maktab Sains argued against free markets as a solution to the current economic crisis in a heated debate with Maktab Duli.

“(The debate) was intense,” said 17-year-old Raihan Nabilah from Maktab Sains.

“We lost to Maktab Duli in the preliminaries so this victory was quite a big deal for us especially since we’re the host school.

“We’ve never gone against this particular team from PTE Katok before and we’re really looking forward to it. They’re tough but I know we can do it. Although we have the short end of the stick as far as the motion goes but we’ll still try our best,” she added enthusiastically.

Meanwhile, Jarrod Sim from PTE Katok was equally satisfied with their performance that afternoon.

“We’re ecstatic,” he told the Bulletin. “We started working on this a little late because we took a bit of a break after the preliminaries and after getting the motion we were worried because we couldn’t find a direction.

“But we pulled through and we worked every day,” he proudly said. PTE Katok also lost to their opponent in the preliminaries and came out victorious in the semi-finals.

The two qualifying schools will now vie for the national debate championship on May 4, this year, arguing whether eco-tourism does indeed benefit local tourism.