Asian Parliamentary Debate format

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Category: Debate formats
Written by Super User
This article has been rewritten. It now features a short description of the form
at, and then you can find a transcript of a longer lecture, if you would like to
hear details about the Asian Parliamentary debate format. Don't forget to Like
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# of people in the debate: 6
# of people in a team: 3
# of teams in the debate: 2
Duration of the speeches: Constructive and whip speeches 7 minutes, replies 4 mi
nutes
Questions format: Points of information
This debate format is mainly used in the Asia (news Sherlock :D) and is also the
basics of the World schools debate format.
The speakers speak in the following order:
Prime minister
Leader of opposition
Deputy prime minister
Deputy leader of opposition
Government whip
Opposition whip
All these speeches are seven minutes long. Prime minister presents the case, Lea
der of opp presents its own arguments and rebuttals the gov's, Deputy PM has als
o his own argument(s) and makes some rebuttal, of course he/she should not forge
t that she has to speak about the arguments of the PM and reafirm them. Deputy l
eader of opp has the same task, meaning new argument(s), rebuttal, own previous
arguments. The government whip is allowed to present "new matter" but is advised
not to, and the opp whip is not allowed to do that.
Now follow two reply speeches, first the oppositional and then the governmental
reply. The speeches are given by the first or the second speaker from each side
. The speeches should focus on the great ideas, arguments, clashes in the debate
and present them.
Lecture on the Asian Parliamentary Debate Format
Today we are going to talk about a format of a debate. Debate is basically a str
uctured discussion. So you have some debate formats, that are more open, like a
presidential debate, or a town hall debate, where groups of people debate agains
t each other or you have debate formats, that are far more structured. They care
fully tell you how much time each person has to speak and so on. Every format ha
s some kind of rules, because those rules serve to preserve order, and try to cr
eate some balance. The rules dont really determine who wins and loses a debate. D
ebating is not about the rules. The rules are there to create balance, to tell p
eople how much time they have to speak and so on. So in every debate format ther
e will be some direction about the topics, about the timing, about the speaking
order and maybe some stuff about the judging criteria, about how do you decide w
hich team wins and which team loses.
Today we are going to focus on the Asian Parliamentary debate Format. This is a
format that is widely used in Asia, among University and High School students an
d I think is a good format. I am going to talk about the teams and the order of
speakers, about timing and talk about topic selection and finally talk about poi
nts of information.

Teams and speaking order in Asian Parliamentary
First lets talk about the teams and speaking order. In the Asian Parliamentary de
bate format you have two teams. One team is called the government team, and the
other team is called the Opposition team. Sometimes it is referred to them as th
e Affirmative and the Negative team. The names dont really matter that much, but
just for you to understand the terminology.
The Government team will always support the topic and the Opposition team must o
ppose the topic. You usually wont have a choice whether you are the Government or
the Opposition on a topic. Each team will have three speakers. Three in Governm
ent and three in Opposition and they will speak in alternating order. So first y
ou will have one speaker from the Government, and then from the Opposition, and
then the Gov. and then the Opp. and then the Gov. and then the Opp. Each speaker
will speak for seven minutes. So an entire debate will take 42 minutes. But hol
d on. At the end of those 42 minutes, both the teams will get to make an extra s
peech. How exciting is that? It is kind of a summation speech, where you are com
paring the teams, and you are trying to persuade the judge Why my team wins over
the other team. So it is not really a speech where you are making new arguments
. But we will get into those details later. So at the end of those six speeches,
the teams get to make a reply speech. This one is shorter. Remember, the earlie
r speeches were seven minutes long, this speech will only be 4 minutes long. And
if you remember, the government team started the debate by making the first spe
ech, this time the Opposition team will start, by giving the first reply speech.
So in essence, the Government team always start the debate, and they always end
the debate by having the last reply speech. So that is the two teams, the speak
ing order and the timing.
Topic selection
Now we come to the topic selection. Every debate needs a topic. In the Asian Par
liamentary format, what happens is, you will usually be given three topics, to c
hoose from. So you and the other team can compare and choose the topic which you
both like. How this is done is the teams will rank the topics, so the Governmen
t team ranks the topics 1., 2. and 3. and Opposition ranks 1, 2 and 3 and then y
ou compare your rankings. The topic which you ranked third will not be debated.
They will cancel each other off. The remaining topic will be debated. In the sit
uation where the teams rank the same topic third, but reverse the other two rank
ings, then you have to flip a coin to decide who gets to debate their first choi
ce. And if both teams rank the same topic as first, then you debate that topic.
The only other thing with Asian Parliamentary debate topic format, the last thin
g Ill talk about are the Points of information.
Points of information in Asian parly
When speakers are speaking, between the first and the sixth minute of every spee
ch, speakers from the other side have the opportunity to rise up and offer a que
stion. So you can say Point of information, Can I ask a question, On that point,
or something to that effect. If Im speaking, I can choose, whether or not to acc
ept this interruption. So I can say Yes, go ahead, ask your question, Or make a
statement, you can say anything you want. But it usually has to be short, about
15 seconds long, that is about two sentences. So you can get up, you can say you
r statement, or ask your question and then I have to respond to it. I dont have t
o accept every question, but if I accept a question, I must respond to that ques
tion. So this adds a huge element of interactivity to the debate. So every speak
er, Government speaker or Opposition speaker has the chance to be questioned by
the other team during their speech. You can only ask points of information to th
e other team, and not to your own team. And you should take at least one, prefer
ably two points of information in your speech. There are no points of informatio
n in the reply speech. So only points of information in the first six speeches i
n the debate.
Those are the essential parts of the Asian Parliamentary debate format.
This video is a transcript of a lecture, that you can see here.
If you would like to know more about Points of information, there are several ar
ticles on this website. A one hour lecture by Sarina Selleck, a lecture by Alfre
d C. Snider, a lecture by G. Rhydian Morgan and a short article on POIs by me.
If you like this article, like it, or leave a comment, I love to hear your thoug
hts!