Debate Basics: How to perform an Asian Parliamentary Debate

Basics of Debating

Entering a formal debate

Unlike other types of presentation, formal debates are structured and graded based on specific standards for each position of speech. Among several formal debate structures, the Parliamentary Format is one of the most widespread academic debate events.

Many university-level institutions in English-speaking nations sponsor parliamentary debate teams. Not only is the parliamentary format currently expanding to the high school level, official debate championships and sessions are based on the basic rule of parliament.

Despite the name, the parliamentary debate is not directly related to debate in governmental parliaments other than the formal speaker titles such as "Leader of Opposition" and "Prime Minister" which we will further study in the following posts.

Learning the Asian Parliamentary Debate

Teams

There are two opposing/clashing teams in an Asian Parliamentary format of debate

1. Government side - proposes and defends the motion

2. Opposition side - refute and negates the motion

*Motion: a formal proposal put to a legislature or committee; the debate topic

Members & Order

Each each side is composed of 3 members and 4 speeches.

[The Members of the Government]

1) Prime minister (PM): opens the debate, defines the motion and advances arguments; thus can set-up how the house wants to interpret the motion and achieve expected goals. Should not hastly surmise Opposition's case, but a good PM would ratiocinate possible clashes and provide adequate case settings for the Government bench.

3) Deputy Prime Minister (DPM): directly refutes  the provided case of the opposition, reestablish the government’s claim, and advances additional arguments for the Government bench. A powerful rebuttal to the LO and the breakdown of the Opposition premise can shift the whole debate.

5) Government Whip (GW): makes an issue-based rebuttal of the opposition’s case and summarizes the case of the government based on the main clashes found during the course of debate. *Seldom allowed to present additional content to revise misunderstood or fragile logic.

8) Government Reply (GR): as the last speaker, provides a thorough review of the whole debate and cleans up any left over clashes that the Government bench has taken. In 3v3 debates, PM speaker usually takes this role, and thus can restate root elements of the case and persuade the judges again.

[The Members of the Opposition]

2) Leader of the Opposition (LO): responds directly to the case of the government by giving a direct rebuttal, and advances arguments. May challenge the motion if the definition given by the government bench is challengeable

4) Deputy Leader of the Opposition (DPL): refutes the case of the DPM, reestablishes the case of the opposition, and advances an argument;

6) Opposition Whip (OW): makes an issues-based rebuttal of the government’s and summarizes the case of the opposition based on the main clashes discussed during the debate. Direct rebuttal to the GW's case is strongly recommended (especially newly presented, or strengthened set-ups by the GW)

7) Opposition Reply (OR): presents reply speech before the Government Reply. Therefore it is important to avoid repetition, and try to provide diverse reasons to why the Opposion Bench took the debate. If the OW used their time in rebuttals or case-breakdowns, the OR can actively straighten out clashes and restate crucial elements of the OPP case.