Asian Parliamentary Debate

Teams:

There two opposing teams in an Asians format of debate:

1. Government side- proposes and defends the motion;
2. Opposition side- refute and negates the motion.

Each side is composed of three members.

The Members of the government side are the following:

1. Prime minister (PM)- opens the debate, defines the motion and advances arguments;
2. Deputy prime Minister (DPM)- refute at first instance the case of the opposition, re-
establish the government's claim, and advances arguments;
3. Government whip (GW)- makes an issue-based rebuttal of the opposition's case and
summarizes the case of the government.

The Members of the Opposition side are the following:

1. Leader of the Opposition(LO)- responds directly to the case of the government by giving
a direct clash, and advances arguments. May challenge the motion if the definition is
challengeable;
2. Deputy Leader of the Opposition (DPL)- refutes the case of the DPM, re-establishes the
case of the opposition, and advances an argument;
3. Opposition Whip (OW)- makes an issues-based rebuttal of the government's and
summarizes the case of the opposition.

Time of Speeches:

Each speaker is allocated seven minutes to deliver their constructive speeches. One speaker
from each side (For the Government: PM/DPM, for Opposition: LO/DLO) is given four
minutes to deliver a reply speech. The speakers will be speaking in the following order:

1. Prime Minister
2. Leader of the opposition
3. Deputy Prime Minister
4. Deputy Leader of the Opposition
5. Government Whip
6. Opposition whip
7. Opposition Reply
8. Government Reply

During the constructive speeches, Point of Information (POI) may be raised by the opposing
side after the first minute up to the sixth minute. POI may be refused or accepted by the
speaker. During reply speeches, no POI may be raised.

Reply Speech:

Reply speech is a comparative analysis of the strength and weaknesses of the case of both
sides. The aim of the speech is to give a bias judgment as to why should the people support
the team's claim. The speech is first delivered by the opposition side and followed by the
government side who will close the debate.

Matter, Manner, Method:

Asian Parliamentary Debate is assessed by an Adjudicator Panel composed of an odd
number according to the following criteria:

1. Matter (40)- substance of the debate, the arguments and evidence presented, and the
logical reasoning and presentation of said arguments.
2. Manner (40)- the style of delivery, the persuasion skills, and the conduct of the debaters.
3. Method (20)- the response to the dynamics of the debate, and the observance of the
rules of debate.

Speaker Roles in Asian Parliamentary Debate

Government:

Prime Minister (PM)

Define context and parameters of debate. For example, in an open motion like "This House
Would Support Musicians", the debate could be contextualized into whether music should be
a commodity for trade, or it should be available gratis (i.e. free music download and
transfer)
Provide concise background or history leading to the issue
Give framework of government bench's case. I.e. mechanisms (if any), argumentation flow
(what the government's first argument is and what the Deputy Prime Minister will talk
about)
Introduce 1st argument
Assert Government stand

Deputy Prime Minister (DPM)

Rebut first argument from Leader of Opposition
Rebut rebuttals to PM's argument
Introduce 2nd and 3rd argument
Reassert Government stand and case

Government Whip

Rebut Deputy Leader of Opposition, and Leader of Opposition
Rebut rebuttals to DPM and PM arguments
Provide a deeper level of analysis for previous arguments and rebuttals
No new arguments, but new angles of arguments should be given
Brief summary of entire case of Government
Reassert Government stand and case

Leader of Opposition

Agree or disagree with context/ parameters of debate (any definitional challenges,
accusations of squirreling, or unfair set up should be made from the LO speech and no later)
Rebut Prime Minister's argument
Give framework for Opposition case (if Opp agrees to problem, then their case
should provide solution, or at least effectively highlight how Government proposal will
worsen the situation)
Introduce first Opposition argument
Assert Opposition stand

Deputy Leader of Opposition

Rebut DPM and PM arguments
Rebut rebuttals to LO arguments
Introduce 1st and 2nd (if any) argument
Reassert Opposition stand and case

Opposition Whip

Rebut DPM and PM arguments
Rebut rebuttals to LO & DLO arguments
Provide a deeper level of analysis for previous arguments and rebuttals
No new arguments, but new angles of arguments should be given
Reassert Opposition stand and case

Reply Speech:
Can only be done by either 1st or 2nd speaker from each bench
Provide a biased 'oral adjudication' of why the debate should go to own bench
Highlight issues you think your side won, carefully tiptoe around issues you think you lost
New examples to expand on discussed examples is usually allowed and makes the reply
speech sound fresh as opposed to verbal regurgitation
Reassert stand---Most importantly, try to have fun while you're doing all this.


Points of information
petek, 09 november 2007
Points of information are, if you ask me, the thing that makes the British parliamentary debate interesting.
But let me start at the start.
A point of information (POI) is a question or a statement, that is raised while a speaker of the opposing team is speaking.
You are allowed to raise a POI at any time in the speech, but not during the protected time. Protected are the first and
the last minute of the speech. You will hear a bang on the table (or a similar sound) after the first minute of a speech and
before the last minute of the speech. Now its the time to raise your POI.
So you stand up and say Point of information or On this point. This is almost everything that you are allowed to say,
when raising a POI (stating what your point is going to be about is not allowed and you will get penalised for a point like
On the point of China). Now you wait. The speaker has to decide if she is taking your point or not. If yes, the speaker is
going to allow you to state your point. If not, she is going to say no, no thanks or similar, and you will see that some
speakers will just sit you down with a hand motion. If you got an OK, now you have 15 seconds, not more, to raise one
point. So think about what you are going to say. And with that I mean that you have to know what exactly you are going
to say even before you stand up. If you dont, it is very possible that you will mess it up. The point is going to be too long
or you will not be clear. When I say that you are allowed to make one point, I mean one
point, which means that you are not allowed to speak about two problems that they have, even if you believe that they
are both equal important.
When to raise a point? Well there are different tactics. But if you would like to make your point, than you need to stand
up, when the speaker makes a break. That means, before he/she is going to start to speak about a new argument, or a
new issue. Otherwise you are likely not to get the point. But you also need to stand up if the speaker is in the middle of
something, but you would like to make something obvious to the judges. That means, that if the speaker is saying
something really weird, you stand up immediately, even if you know that she is not going to take the point. You will make
it obvious to the judges that you know that the point that the speaker made, is not a valid one. Some speakers stand up
at the last 10-5 seconds because they know that they are not going to be taken, but they have offered one more point.
Most judges are going to record how many points you are going to offer.
You should offer at least 5 points in every speech of the opposing side, so that the judges see, that you are involved in
the debate even if you are not speaking. This is even more important if you are one of the first speakers, because there
will be almost an hour of the debate, but you will not speak any more. But don't make too many points. That means that
you should not be standing up and sitting down all the time, because you are going to disturb the speaker and the judges
can penalise you for that.
I can also advise you, to try to make a point about the argument, that you are going to make. That means if you are the
first speaker of the second government, you should make a POI about the argument that is going to be your extension, so
that the argument gets into the debate early, and that way you can make it more important.
A good idea is, that you have a paper on the table on witch you write down the points that you would like to make and
with that you share your points with your debate partner, and with that your debate partner is going to get an idea about
what you think and about what things you are going to use in your speech.
At the end, let me say this. Use your points wisely. Be funny but on the point. Short but kill their argument with the point.