May 28, 2023 – After the last two years being held online, the JDF Open debate competition is finally held offline in collaboration with Sanata Dharma’s English Debate Society (EDS). The collaboration between both institutions has become the reason Sadhar Open this year is quite different from previous years. Together, the two institutes merged into JDF OPEN, a debate contest open to the public.
Natasha Mariana, project manager of the JDF OPEN and the president of the English Debate Club (EDS) of Sanata Dharma University, explained that the collaboration between EDS and JDF happened since JDF was looking for an institute that would hold their upcoming event, and together both institutions merged as one.
The JDF Open has brought a lot of excitement from the participants and judges who attended the event. Around 24 teams have participated in this event so they themselves can be crowned the debate winner of this year’s JDF Open. Lots of students came from universities such as the University of Indonesia (UI), UNIR, and the University of Gadjah Madha (UGM). Not only that, the judges that attended the exchange
came from prestigious universities such as Krisantus Danu Risanto representing Sanata Dharma, Astri Agustina representing UGM, and Hezron Kowardi representing UI.
The teams are also given the liberty to name their team and make an alias for themselves. interesting teams that appeared on the rosters, such as team Anjing, I Want Fischl to Zap me 🥵⚡️, and 米秦 冰淇淋🍦. However, in all seriousness, the competition winner is from team 米秦 冰淇淋🍦, whose two members are Jeffrey Prawira Assaji and Desarnado Bagas Ellasa.
In this year’s event, JDF Open has no particular theme, except for the themes for each round, such as technology, relationships, and many more interesting and philosophical topics. Therefore, the participants are free to choose which topic to cover for this upcoming debate competition. The participants are given freedom for their theme, so they can debate as their heart desires. The judges will rate the winner based on their presented argument on the topic they have chosen for themselves, how it can be used in real-life scenarios, and how they elaborate their arguments on stage.
The event itself was a success, and the top two finalists were crowned in first and second place, respectively. From this joint event, EDS hopes that they can further improve their event, doing more collaboration with more debate institutions all over Indonesia, and can be a stepping stone for them to be known and proliferate outside of Sanata Dharma University.
This event has brought a lot of valuable lessons for the EDS Club itself since all the members acted as coordinators for the event rather than the ones who are participating. The only suggestion they hope to realize for the next event is for the event proposal to be much quicker so they could use their time much more efficiently.
One of the participants from the public category Muhammad Zufar Farhan Zuhdi revealed that he was able to take part in this event because the marketing promotion team has used media broadcasts and the previous JDF Open WhatsApp group competitions as their promotion media. After registering himself, Farhan, as his nickname, was doing some preparation for the competition, such as practicing, reading various current issues in the media, and watching debate competitions that have done it before.
In addition, when answering the opposing team’s arguments, Farhan said, “I don’t have any specific strategy. It’s just that if the opponent says A, then we have to reply with A minus. The important thing is we can search for detailed and structured answers so that the judges could understand.”
As a participant from outside Sanata Dharma University, Farhan stated, “I’m satisfied with the debate competition this year. I can get excited about this year’s debate.” Farhan also expressed his happiness at attending the event, he added, “Especially since this is the first year of offline competition after the previous years it was held online.”
For instance, he has taken part in the event each year and is impressed by how the Sadhar Open has grown and transformed from an online competition to an offline competition. According to him, the debate motions this year were quite challenging, so it made him obtain new insights from the answers of the opposing team and feedback from the judges.
Although Farhan did not have big hopes for this year’s tournament because he just wanted to enjoy the occasion since the excitement of the offline debate could be felt again this year. He was also delighted with his accomplishment of placing second in the competition. Overall, he is pleased to be there for the accomplishments as well as the event’s dynamic and enjoyable atmosphere. He also praised this year’s debate competition that was held by the EDS Club, “This event was pretty well executed even though I understand that the organizer of this event is still in college and doesn’t have much experience because lately it’s been so much online.” He also praised the committees’ efforts in terms of the room arrangement, welcoming participants, logistics, and various supports for the participants and judges.
Farhan’s suggestion is that next year’s debate competition will be livelier, and he also hopes that there will be more teams that will take part so that the competition can be more exciting. “Even though there were 24 teams–and that was quite a lot–if you can add more, maybe up to 40 teams, the event can be even more exciting,” he said.
Journalist: Putu Beryl Putra Widyadhana
Reporter: Dulce Cicilia Sariri
Editor: Nanda Pratama Putera Tomasila, Vonna Meisya Saputra (QC)