Interview With a Promising Debater
Ekramul Haque Ehite
Mahdi Mashrur Ibne Matin is a promising debater of BUET Debating Club. Started debating in his school days he has numerous achievements in this sector. He participated in Worlds Universities Debating Championship-2012 held in Philippines and earned 10 points. He has also participated in a number of national and international debating championships. YI caught up with him for an interview.
How were you initiated into the world of debating?
My initiation with debating initially started in my school-days, in Udayan School. There we had a few inter section Bangla debates, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but were too few in numbers. But my passion with the art of debating actually started with BUET Debating Club, in my second year. I often say this, BUET Debating Club is one of the best things that happened to me!
Who are your debating inspirations?
From Bangladesh: Abir Hasan Niloy (IBA)
Internationally: Victor Finkel(Monash), Shengwei Lee (Oxford), Tim Sonnerich (Monash)
Tell us about your first debate?
It was in class 7 I clearly remember my dad wrote the script for me, and I had no idea of what I was speaking. And add to that, I was very nervous.
Please tell us something about some of your notable debate competitions.
I attended the DLSU Worlds Universities Debating Championship-2012, said to be the Olympics of Debating in last December, representing BUET and Bangladesh. There were 400 teams from all over the globe. We debated against in total of 27 teams, coming from Australia, Romania, India, Croatia, America, Angola etc. That was a tournament worth remembering. I also attended NALSAR Inter Varsity Debate in Hyderabad, India and Asian BP Debate Championship-2011 almost all of the reputed tournaments of Bangladesh in the last 2.5 years.
Which was your funniest experience in debating?
I remember in November 2011, in Asian BP Debate Championship-2011 where we faced a team from Korea. The first speaker from that team, when he started speaking I was sure upto 2 minutes that he wasnt speaking English. I laid my ears with utmost scrutiny but could not find any similar words from English dictionary. Then suddenly I heard few English words: only then I could recognize that he was speaking English but with encoded local Korean accent. And guess what I had to go immediately and rebut the speech of the Korean gentleman. We managed to win that debate, but only God knows how !!
Tell us something about your achievements as a debater?
I got 10 points in Worlds University Debate Championship 2012. I got Breaking Debater award in 4th BUET DC Debate Championship. Apart from this, I have participated in numerous debating championships as well. However, the best thing debating has given to me is the opportunity to mix with wonderful people from all around the country and the globe.
What does it take to be a good debater?
Passion, practice and patience. All you have to do to win a debate is to know, why your oppositions central arguments fails. But for that, one has to constantly update himself with the changing world-views, develop critical reasoning capabilities, master the art of convincing people last but not the least: practice, practice and practice.
Debate then and debate now--what are the visible changes you notice in both local and global arena?
I believe the English debating arena in Bangladesh is constantly evolving . A good number of BD debaters nowadays go around the globe to put up a fight against some of the mighty universities of foreign debating circuit. They learn a lot of tricks of the trade from there, which are deployed in the local tournaments. In the local tournaments, we nowadays see incredible amount of raw talents coming up, and huge number of institutions are making their voices heard in the debating circuit. Overall, in Bangladesh English Debating is in a proper track than what it used to be like 5-10 years back.
What is your future goal?
To be an engineer who can contribute something positive to the society.
