Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts, 36th Storey, PSA Building, 460 Alexandra Road, Singapore 119963. Tel: 3757794/5
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SPEECH BY MR PETER CHEN, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE FOURTH ASIAN INTER-VARSITY DEBATING CHAMPIONSHIP ON MONDAY 19TH MAY 1997 AT 10.00 AM
Excellencies
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
A very good morning to all of you.
First of all, let me extend a warm welcome to all our Asian friends to Singapore for the Fourth Asian Inter-Varsity Debating Championship.
This Championship has its genesis in 1993 at the Australasian Debating Championship held in Kuala Lumpur. The Asian delegates taking part in that Championship shared the view that debating in Asia has come of age. They shared the conviction that the debating standard in Asia is ready to meet the challenge of any international debating competition.
Thus was the birth of the First Asian Inter-Varsity Debating Championship in 1994 which took place in this very same venue. We are therefore very pleased to welcome you back this morning. In just under four years, it has grown into an event with more than 200 debaters from 28 Asian universities, with a voice loud enough to be heard in any international debating forum.
The primary aim of the Asian Inter-Varsity Debates is to advance debating in Asia and to promote the exchange of ideas and debating skills among the participants. Debating is something more than an intellectual past time which schools and universities indulge in. It is an important activity in the complexity of everyday life, in work and in government. Society is a complex organism. So long as there is choice, there is need for good debate. Even in situations where no choice appears to have been given, a debate would have taken place and a choice arrived at before it is imposed. It is just that some one else has had to make that choice. But let us make sure that there is a good debate before a choice is made. Very few issues are straightforward. The more complex our life, and the smarter we get, the more ideas and choices confront us. You often hear the expression, "There are pros and cons." It may be a cliché, but it is also a fact of life.
Debating is important because it is about the advocacy of ideas. Good advocacy brings out the best of an idea or a proposed course of action. Where two courses of action are mutually exclusive, we want to hear the best of each side so that we can choose wisely.
This brings me to the adjudicators, whose role is to choose wisely. The importance of their role can be seen by the Adjudication Seminar which was held last week, even before the Championship begins. This is only one of the several interesting and imaginative features of the whole programme of the Championship.
Even the selection of matching teams will employ the latest in Information Technology. You will start today with a Mock Round of debates, a warm up round of friendly verbal jousting among yourselves. The week's programme is not just all work and no play. At least I wouldn't call an evening at Hard Rock Café work! Most important of all, the programme provides ample opportunities to promote another principal objective of the Championship, i.e., to foster friendship and goodwill among the debaters from all over Asia.
I am also attracted by the event "Public Debate at MPH" on Day 4 of the programme. MPH is a very busy book store. It is an interesting proposition to bring your debates right into the community. This may be an Inter-Varsity Debating Championship, but you are not about to shut yourself within your ivory tower. The week looks like a very interesting week ahead.
It is with the greatest pleasure that I declare open the Fourth Asian Inter-Varsity Debating Championship.