Melihat kepada perjalanan debat arab di Malaysia, agak slow dan adakala mengundur beberapa langkah. Agak sedih apabila perjalanan debat arab tidak selancar debat inggeris dan melayu. Setelah 5-6 tahun ia bermula secara rasmi dalam format yang tersusun, masih kurang nampak hala tuju positif bg debat arab di universiti. Kalau di peringkat sekolah, alhamdulillah bilangan pertandingan dan sekolah2 yang bertanding semakin bertambah, but there are no guarantee that the one who debates in school will debate in university - for arabic case. Untuk bhs inggeris dan melayu, perkara biasa pendebat2 universiti adalah bekas pendebat2 sekolah masing2. Arab? masih sgt kurang. Faktornya mudah je, sbb once diorg dah sambung belajar, course2 yg diorg amik medium perantaraan bukan bhs arab, jadi agak sukar bg bekas2 pendebat bahasa arab sekolah utk meneruskan karier debat di samping keterhadan universiti- universiti yang subur debat bahasa arabnya.
Ligat otak memikirkan idea penyelesaian to fix this situation ie keadaan malap debat arab (altho i know that my capacity is toooooo limited) ye lah sekadar bergelar seorg pendebat, apalah kemampuan yang ada pada diri saya. And usually akan buntu bila fikir pasal ni. But that doesn't stop me to think and think - ideas! Cos everything starts with ideas. Banyak faktor yang mempengaruhi perjalanan debat arab, kekurangan tenaga penggerak yang serius, kewangan, idea, networking etc. Bukan setakat perjalanan debat, mutu debat juga masih di takuk lama. Spontaneity, knowledgeableness, maturity, open mindedness, critical thinking - uh terlalu banyak lagi yang perlu dibuat utk menjadikan debat arab platform utk menjadikan semua pendebat2 arab memiliki ciri2 ini. Mungkin hanya kerana paranoid utk melakukan perubahan dan anjakan paradigma, plus rs complacent dengan keadaan yg ada menyebabkan kurang perubahan positif berlaku dalam debat arab.
Mungkin untuk merubah apa yg di dalam perlukan tenaga penggerak di luar. Qatar Debate... that's what I mean. It has everything baik dr segi kewangan, organisasi penggerak yang tersusun fokus serius, ideas and strong networking. And more importantly their concept of debating is similar to english and malay. (Isn't it supposed to be the same? ) What i mean is the goal of debating - I believe that the goal we set in our mind determine the way we work on our job. LANGUAGE is the main goal of arabic debating in Malaysia, as it is the fastest tool to master arabic. I do not deny this benefit as i also benefited the same thing. In 2- 3 months i can speak arabic fluently becos of debating. Alhamdulillah, but making the language as the goal hasn't brought the arabic debate to higher standard. The QUALITY of debating, everything, from the content, the motions, the way of debating, until the adjudication - are still at the same level. I do not want to exaggerate on Qatar Debate cos they also have lacking, yup, and they are lack of experience in arabic debating. They just started 1 or two years ago. Compared to Malaysia, we've been walking for quite along time. So we're more experienced than the arab countries themselves.
Now Qatar Debate is holding the first International Universities Arabic Debate Championship. Where else it would be, of course in Qatar. The competing countries are 12 including Malaysia ( only from IIUM and the debaters are my friends ) consisting of 40 debating teams. The format is different, the motions are so challenging, the issues debated are significant, the best part, the motions are going to be given 30 minutes before debate starts. The focus of debating is critical argumentation - not based on language per se, and i hope the standard of adjudication will be high quality and not based on lughah only. Anjakan paradigma besar utk debat arab. On QD side, it's not a paradigm shift but an effort to begin new thing. We? I guess when no one wants to change it here, others will change it, isn't it?
My hope is that things will change after they come back even if it is a small change. I am truly happy that finally arabic debate has a chance to improve, to be hightened to upper level. I'm glad that it finally happened where there are chances for arabic debate to change its way, eventho it happened in other country. Perhaps it's better than doing it here. Only Allah knows.... (^ ^)
My hope is that things will change after they come back even if it is a small change. I am truly happy that finally arabic debate has a chance to improve, to be hightened to upper level. I'm glad that it finally happened where there are chances for arabic debate to change its way, eventho it happened in other country. Perhaps it's better than doing it here. Only Allah knows.... (^ ^)
