Seri Iskandar Debate Open, or shortly known as SIDEO is a prestigious national tournament that is hosted by Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Perak every year. This tournament’s objective is to promote youth development in fostering critical thinking, presentation skills and teamwork among young minds while nurturing their passion for debate. This year’s edition of SIDEO took place from the 14th till the 15th of October 2023 and saw a total of 48 teams in three different categories; high school, novice and open. Universiti Malaya sent 6 teams to represent our university in this tournament and it was carried out in the British Parliamentary format.
The teams representing Universiti Malaya are as follows:
Malaya 1: Danesh Ram Aggarwal and Catherine Alicia Nathan
Malaya 2: Muhyuddin Ahsan and Kuhan Karttikeyn
Malaya 3: Rashrvin Pillay and Benjamin Tan
Malaya 4: Pavandeep and Kenneth Chin
Malaya 5: Anis Adiba and Wong Jo Ann
Malaya 6: Thivagar and Imran
After 4 gruelling preliminary rounds, we are very happy to announce that 5 out of 6 Malaya teams broke in this tournament and that too in the open category! Malaya 4 and Malaya 5 narrowly bowed out of the Open Quarterfinals in this tournament which is truly a commendable achievement as they are novice debaters but yet managed to break in the open category. Malaya 1, 2 and 3 all powered their ways through all the way to the Grand Finals of SIDEO 2023. It was a very remarkable feeling to have all three Malaya teams in the Finals alongside BAC 1. The Grand Finals motion was This house prefers a world where Jantelovan is the dominant narrative. After a very excellent and close debate, it was Malaya 1 who took the championship after a 4-2-1 split, to both Malaya 2 and Malaya 3 respectively. Catherine was crowned the Grand Finals Best Speaker. Additionally, 9 debaters from our university received Best Speaker Awards as well! Kuhan was crowned the 3rd Overall Best Speaker followed by Catherine at 4th, Ahsan at 5th and Rashrvin, Benjamin as well Ram all tied at 9th Overall Best Speaker. In the novice category, Pavan and Jo Ann were crowned 6th best novice speaker while Anis was crowned the 10th best novice speaker of SIDEO!
Overall, our team did exceptionally well in SIDEO 2023 and we are pumped to do just as good in the upcoming tournaments this year!
