My debate journey
HOw it started
Honestly, my interest first sparked when I saw my seniors winning a lot of debate competitions. They stood up there looking so fiercely confident, and their words just flowed so powerfully and I knew I wanted to be exactly like that. So, I gathered my courage, walked into our school’s debate room, and asked to join the club when I was in Form 3. My heart was pounding out of my chest, and my palms were completely sweaty, but I did it anyway.
“It felt a bit late, honestly, but it is truly never too late to start something you want.”
Fun fact: around this time, my English wasn’t that good at all, and I kinda had a hard time structuring my speeches haha.
After being tested by my seniors, I still don’t know how, but I was magically admitted to the school’s main team! I was brought in to fill a vacant spot because one of the members suddenly moved to a different school. Plus, the competition where I’d be representing my school is the prestigious PPM (Piala Perdana Menteri) was in exactly two weeks!
Oh boy, you could tell how panicked I was. I was a total noob, and now I had to compete at the national level against other elite SBPians?! I knew that to hone my skills and step up my game in record time, I needed serious help. So, I signed up for a debate camp.
Enter MIDP SCARS (Schools Camp for Advanced Reasoning Skills). This was an intensive two days camp that taught you the ins and outs of debating and public speaking. After the training, we had to compete against each other to put our new skills to the test.
My team was so incredibly unique because of our age gap. It consisted of me (a 15-year-old), our youngest member who was only 9, and our oldest who was 19! We each brought our own distinct flavor to the table, and I learned so much about how to communicate and collaborate with people completely outside my age group.
Who would’ve thought that a rookie like me would actually win the MIDP SCARS final debate competition along with my teammates? I couldn’t believe it when we passed all the stages and won every single match! including the grand final. (I was so incredibly shocked, I swear I literally couldn’t muster a single word!)
What’s even wilder? I won a spot in the Top 5 Best Speakers (I got second best!) and the Top 5 Best Public Speakers! You could say I bagged the whole package to take back home.
If there is one massive lesson I learned from this whole whirlwind experience, it’s this:
“Never be scared of something that you don’t know yet. Just do your best and learn along the way.”
Honestly, trophies aside, the absolute most valuable things I gained there were a wonderful group of new friends and the actual confidence to stand up and debate. Literally.
PPM era ver 2023
You can tell we were truly in the GAME. This is where my official PPM era began.
Honestly, fighting alongside my highly experienced seniors often made me feel like I was just being carried. Imposter syndrome hit me hard, and it honestly made me feel like I wasn’t worth much to the team. God knows how many times I hit a wall, having to desperately convince myself that I wasn’t just a burden. As the only Form 3 student in a group full of Form 5s, the PRESSURE was incredibly real.
However, I pushed through the doubts, stepped up, and carried out my role as the first speaker right until the very end. And guess what? We managed to make it all the way to the Quarter Finals! Yes, you can officially call me a PPM 2023 Quarter-Finalist!
But let’s be real, none of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for my seniors’ immense talents and hard work. Not to mention the special guidance we received from our amazing coach, Luqman Nawar, who was actually a PPM Finalist himself back in 2019
intensive training with luqman nawar
Honestly, Luqman’s guidance wasn’t just helpful. It was a complete game-changer for me.
Remember when I confessed earlier about my massive Imposter Syndrome? I was so convinced I was just tagging along for the ride, letting my brilliant seniors do all the heavy lifting. But Luqman saw something in me that I couldn’t see in myself. He didn’t just teach me how to structure a killer argument; he taught me how to actually believe in the words coming out of my mouth. He patiently chipped away at my insecurities and helped unlock a potential I had no idea was hiding in there.
After his coaching sessions, it was like a switch had magically flipped. I was definitely a whole new person.
Instead of being the quiet Form 3 kid who just nodded along, I started actively engaging in our team’s intense discussions. I stopped relying solely on my seniors to carry the weight and started bringing my own fire to the table. I was pitching ideas, defending my points, and truly acting like the First Speaker I was chosen to be.
And you want to know the absolute most beautiful part of it all? When we reached those Quarter Finals, the imposter feeling was finally gone. For the very first time, I looked at our massive achievement and allowed myself to celebrate the victory as my own, too.
Standing on my own
You know that bittersweet old saying, ‘friends come and go’? Well, in the debate world, it is less about friends going, and more about your absolute lifelines graduating.
The reality hit me like a ton of bricks because my beloved Form 5 seniors were packing up to leave, and I was going to be left completely alone to carry the legacy. Okay, maybe alone is a slight exaggeration, but the situation was still wild. Because there were literally no Form 4 students in the club, I was suddenly the most ‘experienced’ one left standing.
Yes, you read that right. At the early age of Form 3, I was officially appointed as the Captain of the Debate Club.
Suddenly, I had to build a new empire. I carefully handpicked my new main team from the rest of the club which consist of my dear friends Syafa and Nuha, and our brilliant junior, Aisy. We were the new squad. But let me be completely honest, the reality of managing my own team and running the entire debate club put me in a really tough, overwhelming spot.
Thankfully, I wasn’t entirely in the dark. Hasif, our previous debate captain, stepped up to mentor me. He patiently guided me on how to actually lead, manage, and inspire a club.
It was the craziest mental shift. Instead of hiding behind my seniors during a debate, I WAS the senior. I WAS the captain. I vividly remember realizing that Hasif used to be the one standing at the front of the room leading our intense brainstorming sessions. Now? The marker was in my hand, and all eyes were on me. The shift was incredibly real, and I won’t lie, it took me some time to truly own that title.
But looking back, the absolute sweetest part of this entire era wasn’t the titles or the pressure. it was the privilege of growing alongside my team. We built our synergy from absolute ZERO into something incredibly special.
And the hard work paid off. At the IDC Tournament 2023, against all odds, I ranked in the Top 5 Best Speakers out of over 150+ fierce participants!
Holding that achievement, I didn’t just feel proud; I felt a deep sense of peace. It was the ultimate validation that I had stepped into my role. That win alone was so deeply rewarding, and as I looked at Syafa, Nuha, and Aisy, I just knew in my heart that we have a much bigger, brighter journey ahead of us.
my biggest heartbreak
Fast forward to PPM 2024. We were officially representing our school, stepping into the arena with my new team against some of the most elite SBPs in the country.
At first, things felt like an absolute dream. On the first day, we swept all three of our matches. We were on cloud nine! But then… the second day struck us like a freight train. We lost our next two matches, completely missing the cut for the qualifying rounds.
That realization broke my heart. It hit me so deeply because I remembered marching all the way to the Quarter Finals when I had my seniors by my side. Now, leading the team on my own, I couldn’t even bring us to the Octo Finals. What made the sting even worse was watching our school’s DEBAT team power their way to the Semi-Finals. The silent comparison in the air felt suffocating. Even though our debate teachers were incredibly kind and never said a single negative word out loud, I could feel it. I knew deep down they were disappointed, especially after rooting for us so hard from the very beginning.
Looking back, sitting with that loss was a massive, humbling lesson for me.
The hard truth is: you simply cannot expect to miraculously win when you are up against teams who breathe this sport. We were facing kids who had been groomed as debaters since Form 1, teams with elite coaches, and students who trained harder than anyone else.
We didn’t have any of that luxury. The only things we had during our training were mock debates, friendlies with other schools, and literally using ChatGPT as our ‘coach.’ We didn’t have a real-life mentor sitting in the room to pinpoint our blind spots, correct our arguments, or tell us where we went wrong. Looking back now, you could definitely say we were just ‘syok sendiri’, living in our own little bubble, thinking we were fully prepared when we really weren’t.
greatest comeback!!!
If someone were to ask me what my greatest comeback era was, I wouldn’t even hesitate. It was undeniably 2025 which is my Form 5 year.
The devastating loss we experienced during PPM 2024 was a massive wake-up call. It made me realize that we couldn’t just keep moving in the dark on our own, we absolutely needed external help. So, taking a leap of faith, I reached out to someone I knew from the MIDP SCARS debate camp to see if he would be our coach.
And you know what?! He actually said yes! That is how the legendary journey of the SEPINTAR debaters with Coach Haikal began. If I tried to explain just how amazing he is, WordPress would literally run out of pages. He is one of the most brilliant, extraordinary debaters I have ever witnessed. To be completely frank, meeting him was definitely Allah’s blessing for our team.
Coach Haikal didn’t just train us, he completely reworked us from the ground up. And yes, I mean reworked. He stripped away everything we knew and rebuilt our foundation from absolute zero. We joined countless international and open debates before PPM just to test the waters. Naturally, we stumbled a lot at first because we were adapting to a completely new, rigorous style of debating enforced by him.
But honestly? It worked like absolute magic. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t shaking while delivering my speech. Every single words I spoke was perfectly structured and packed with heavy hitting points, which led to me almost consistently securing the Best Speaker title in our matches!
Of course, the journey wasn’t without its heartbreak. When Syafa suddenly left the group, it was devastating. Losing someone you started with, someone you knew had so much potential, felt like the ground crumbling beneath us. But Coach Haikal shifted my entire perspective. He taught me how to lead the team forward and, most importantly, how to never look back.
By the time PPM rolled around, we were undeniably ready. There were no haunting ‘What if we fail?’ whispers holding us back. We wholeheartedly believed in the countless all nighters we pulled, the grueling practices with Coach, and the endless support from our teachers.
The result? During the zone level, we were crowned the Third Best Team out of 16 schools in Zon Tengah. We had officially qualified for the National Level! Off we went!
The National Stage & A Bittersweet Goodbye
At Nationals, I could feel it in my bones, our synergy was unmatched.
Nuha blossomed into the absolute best whip speaker ever, I could always rely on her to deliver the exact rebuttals I couldn’t get to in time. Aisy structured our cases like a master. And Raihana was our anchor, constantly pouring brilliant contributions into our intense prep time brainstorming sessions. We finally carried our roles perfectly, relying completely on one another without ever feeling like a burden.
We fought with everything we had and qualified up to the Octo Finals. Now, did that placement define our absolute best? I don’t think so. I genuinely believe we had the fire to reach the Semi-Finals, but I also know that God has His own beautiful plans. Sometimes you win the trophy, and sometimes you win the experience.
Either way, leading my team through 2025 was the absolute honor of a lifetime. We marched as far as we possibly could, and in doing so, we completely transformed the club. This year, the SEPINTAR debate club finally gained the recognition it deserved. We welcomed dedicated new members, and I am leaving behind a fierce future team that I know will continue our legacy.
It breaks my heart to say that my time as the Debate Captain of SEPINTAR ends here. Honestly? A part of me never wants this to end. But you can’t pause time, and you have to know when to pass the baton.
Look at how far we came. I started as a completely clueless Form 3 newbie with broken English and sweaty palms, and I walked out as a National-level Captain. That is why I will always believe this:
“When you put your heart and mind into something, you will achieve the unimaginable. With the right guidance and the right environment, you will absolutely unlock a potential you never even knew you had.”
To my beloved debate team and Coach Haikal, if you are reading this, I love you all, from the very bottom of my heart. Thank you for making this the best chapter of my life. <3