Annual Oratory Competition

The annual National Oratory Competition was held on Wednesday, 15th April 2009. I have decided to post an entry on this competition because of the extensive involvements of Sekolah Menengah Muda Hashim. The participants from the school have been selected to proceed to the Final stages for the past 3 consecutive years, which is quite an achievement.

In this post, I am going to extract some of the articles from The Brunei Times and Borneo Bulletin, which will served as a note to us in case the original articles from BT and BB go to archive.

Here it goes...

The 3rd Information Department and BELTA Oratory Competition 2009 was held yesterday at the Dewan Raya RTB in the capital.[Source: Borneo Bulletin]

EIGHT upper secondary students were able to inform, entertain and persuade an audience yesterday through public speaking during the finals of an oratory competition held at Radio Television Brunei (RTB) headquarters. [Source: The Brunei Times]

During the qualifying rounds, 31 government and non-government schools battled it out at the Information Department.

At the competition, students voiced out their thoughts and opinions based on the themes stated, which included nationalism, youth development and Brunei's life.

Out of the 31 schools, eight schools made it to the finals, namely Menglait Secondary School, Muda Hashim Secondary School, Sayyidina Ali Secondary School, Chung Ching Middle School, Chung Hua Middle School, KB, Chung Hwa Middle School, BSB, Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Secondary School and St James' School. [Source: Borneo Bulletin]

The oratory competition was organised by the Information Department and the Brunei English Language Teachers' Association (BELTA) for the third time in conjunction with the country's National Day Silver Jubilee celebrations, as part of an annual event. [Source: The Brunei Times]

The guest of honour was the Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, Dato Paduka Awang Hj Hamdillah Hj Abd Wahab. Also present at the event were the Director of the Information Department, Dr Muhammad Hadi Muhammad Melayong and the High Commissioner of Malaysia to Brunei Darussalam, Dato Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari. [Source: Borneo Bulletin]

Themed "Stand up and Speak out", the upper secondary students were able to expose an audience of younger students to the conventions of public speaking.

In his opening remarks, Director of Information Dr Muhd Hadi Muhd Melayong said: "I am pleased to mention that the competition continues to grow in strength each year." He added that there has definitely been visible improvements in the students' performances, as seen during the earlier rounds. [Source: The Brunei Times]

The champion of this year's competition was Louisa Lo Mei Hwa from Chung Hwa Middle School, BSB with the topic 'National honour is national property of the greatest value'. She walked away with the Champion Trophy donated by the Minister of Education, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Lela Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Abdul Rahman bin Dato Setia Hj Mohamed Taib, book prizes, a cash prize and a certificate of participation sponsored by MacMillan Publishers UK. [Source: Borneo Bulletin]

"I am so surprised that I won because this was definitely unexpected. I only had less than a week to prepare for the finals," she said to The Brunei Times. [Source: The Brunei Times]

"I was motivated to enter the competition by my English teacher and have been practising hard for the competition with my coach, Christine Sullovan. My family, teachers and friends have been a great support to me during my journey to the finals.

"I think the oratory competition is very important as it helps in public speaking and boosts one's confidence. For those who wish to enter these kinds of public speaking competitions, I would like to say go for it and practise a lot, get your pronunciations right and do your best." [Source: Borneo Bulletin]

Speaking on the importance of participating in an oratory competition, the winner said that it is really important as it helps students portray their public speaking skills which will help in boosting their confidence. [Source: The Brunei Times]

Coming in second was Dayang Nur Syazana Hj Awg Md Fauzi from St James' School with the topic, 'The Importance of wisdom and maturity in the lives of youths today', followed by Dayang Nuraini Abd Zabar from Chung Hua Middle School, KB in third place with the topic, 'How Brunei youths can help eradicate the culture of wastage'. [Source: Borneo Bulletin]

"Oratory competitions are really important today to showcase and build up public speaking skills. However, youths in the country are very much shy natured and therefore, by speaking at these competitions, we can inspire them to overcome their shyness," said Nur Syazana.

She added: "We should encourage them by saying it's alright to speak in front of people and hopefully someday, they will be able to follow our footsteps."

Both winners received $150 and $100 respectively, as well as a certificate of participation and books for their schools. Louisa Lo took home the prestigious Pehin Abd Rahman Taib Trophy for winning the competition. [Source: The Brunei Times]

This year's competition also saw the presentations of two invited orators from Malaysia, Andrew Ghanananthan and Norliza Md Yamin. They are part of a Malaysian delegation comprising two observers and an accompanying officer.

They are in the country under the Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Information between the government of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam and the government of Malaysia.

Among the objectives of the competition are to instil in the young generation, particularly the students, a sense of love for the Sultan, race, religion and nation through oratory or public speaking, to serve as a platform for students to be able to speak before an audience and to expose an audience of younger students to the conventions of public speaking.

It is the hope of the organisers of the competition that these groups of students will take the experience and what they have learned and apply it accordingly in their future endeavours. [Source: Borneo Bulletin]

On hand to present the prizes to the winners was Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources Dato Paduka Hj Hamdillah Hj Abd Wahab.

He said: "The urgency shown by the Department of Information and Belta in turning such a simple but challenging idea into reality with the basic ambition to provide yet another platform for our young generations has reflected the burning desires and seriousness of all parties concerned."

He added: "I encourage students to build up trust, confidence and comfort to stand up, speak out and speak out with passion." [Source: The Brunei Times]

Below are the original links to the national newspaper, with some photos.
Link to The Brunei Times article