Introduction
Hello! my name is Aluh Rizki Alia, but you can call me Aluh. I’m from the Law Major, argUMenter 2022. I’m a bit chronically online, so if you found a new meme, please do send me one! I love thriller and horror movies as much as I love perkedel jagung. I also play online games, so if you’re into those famous mobile games or Point Blank, you know where to contact me!
Dive to Aluh Debate Record
- Champion of E-Fest 2022
- Finalist of Lomba Debat Konstitusi Formasi Law Fair 2022
- Champion of SAVE-DC 2023
- 1st Runner Up of NUDC Universitas Mataram 2023
- Breaking Adjudicator of NUDC Region IV 2023
- The Most Aspiring N1 of NUDC 2023
- 2nd Best Speaker of SAVE-DC 2023
- 3rd Best Speaker of NUDC Universitas Mataram 2023
- Juara 1 Lomba Debat IPDN 2023
- Quarter Finalist of KDBI Udayana 2023
- Semifinalist Debat Disporseni Universitas Terbuka 2023
- Champion of Aurgumentum Pro-Ams 2024; Ams-Ams Category
- 1st Runner Up and 4th Best Speaker of NUDC Selection Universitas Mataram 2024
- Champion and 1st Overall Best Speaker of KDMI Selection Universitas Mataram 2024
- Semifinalist Debat Bahasa Indonesia UCDC 2024 by Universitas Ciputra
A Glimpse of Aluh First Competition
I’ve tried debating since I was in high school. I could say it was never on my bingo list. I joined the debate club because one of my teachers asked me to join it. The only reason she asked me was because I was quite fluent in English, and at that time she needed an English debate team to join aDC 2019. But it was a bit exciting. I joined the practice, it was hard at first, even my first speech was so bad and my coach criticized me for that speech. Yet, I didn’t manage to be on the main team that was about to be sent as my school delegation to aDC 2019, due to the lack of funding and my teacher assuming I wasn’t that ready to participate in that competition.
Well, my first competition was a slight blessing in disguise. One of the members of the main team was getting sick, and my teacher asked me to replace her for SAVE-DC 2020, my very first competition. That was hard. I didn’t sleep much, I did a lot of research, and I was nervous because that was my first chance and I needed to prove to them that I was capable of replacing the main team. It wasn’t bad though; I managed to be in the Quarterfinals. But then I promised if I could be given a second chance, I’d win it.
Second Chances: The Turning Point to Victory
My second chance came at SKETSA 2020. The only thing I remembered was that it was my first time having the urge to win something. I did explain about my first competition, where I joined it as a replacement for the main team. I promised myself that I needed to prove that I actually deserved that position, and not merely as a replacement or rebound of the main member. That I actually was capable enough to be competing. And yeah, I did truly win it. It was actually a split decision from the judge, and the Chair of Adjudicator, Kak Hanum, at that time, used her veto right to give the winning team to us. Thanks to her, I didn’t quit debating after that first win, which initially I was about to, thinking maybe debate wasn’t really my place. But hey, I won.
Debate and Self Development
Which skill has developed the most during your journey of debating?
Mostly, on my decision-making. I’d say debate has helped me a lot through everything. I used to be indecisive; it was hard for me to decide something. I’d probably spend too much time just to decide things. But the interesting thing I learned from debate is how those short times of case building can result in an amazing case, with a lot of ideas, and 7 minutes of constructive speech. That was amazing. I learned to be more efficient and strategic in weighing and deciding something.
What would you consider to be the essential skills for debating?
I’d say the first essential skill of debating won’t be public speaking, English proficiency, nor persuasiveness. It’s all about efficiency. Debate is always about strategy; it requires you to think fast in 15 minutes of case building, speak up and deliver ideas for 7 minutes, and offer POI for 15 seconds. Everything needs a proper strategy. Debate always forces me every day to learn how to be more efficient and deliver not only the correct cases but also the strategic ones that can bring my team to victory. Efficiency leads me to learn when and how I should speak up my ideas. Not only in the debate context but also in my daily life, it helps me manage my time better, my tasks, and everything in general. It makes me always think better and further, about how things will impact me and what choices I should’ve made. Everything.
“The Sign of Improvement”
I personally think that improvement doesn’t always come with specific changes to yourself. In my case, it started with a sort of deadlock. I felt stuck, like I wasn’t going anywhere with debating. I felt that I only debated because it was the only thing I could ever be good at. I realized that and evaluated everything. I questioned why I started this journey in the first place. I emptied my glass and learned everything from the basics. I even learned the burdens of the first and second speaker, what BP in debate means, and how to structure my arguments. I went back to basics, again. I started to accept that I wasn’t even that good, even though I won some competitions before. But I realized I wasn’t going anywhere with those skills. I forced myself to learn everything from the basics again, learning from everyone. Maybe the first step of my improvement was my realization and acceptance. I wasn’t even that good, and I should accept the fact that I could never stop learning. There are always people better than us. I need to accept that with my current skill, I won’t achieve more.
I don’t exactly have specific times when I first realized that I might be improving. Because debate always evolves over time, it doesn’t always stick to a specific strategy or matter and structure. It relies on many things, including debate trends, which we call meta-debate. That’s why we need to learn every day. But I think the first time I realized I made some changes to my debating style—although not necessarily improvements—was when I first joined argUMent. I met a lot of good debaters here, whom I probably met during my high school debating era, but I got to know them better here. I had many chances to spar, discuss, and have a lot of mattering sessions with them. And that was in my third year of debating. Quite long, but it was worth the fight.
Who are the amazing individuals who have supported your journey?
I could never be more grateful for everyone I’ve met on this journey. Shoutout to Mrs. Nurul, my English teacher, who first asked me to join the debate club. Mr. Yusuf, my first-ever coach, who always encouraged me with his most famous quote, ‘If you expect more, please do more.’ My amazing teammate until now, Ben—I’m so happy doing all these with him. Lia, my teammate and best friend since high school. Kak Maudy and Kak Anis, my first-ever teammates.
All adjudicators, every senior in argUMent, Kak Khazani as my first debate tutor in Zagreb Class. Kak Iwan, Kak Iqbal, Kak Icha, Kak Jagad—who always encouraged me and gave me reassurance, support, and a lot of chances to improve. Kak Awan and Kak Yadilla, for the amazing journey in NUDC 2023—I learned a lot from them. I appreciate all of them, making the debate environment always so friendly to me, providing me with a lot of spaces and chances to grow more and improve. I’m so grateful for meeting them, especially all argUMenters and argUMent in general for the beginning of this journey. I’d definitely do this over and over again and wouldn’t change a thing. There are too many blessings I got from here, and I could never be more grateful for it.
Debate: An Art Beyond Competition
Debate has always been so exciting for me, but at first, I thought debate was only a simple competition where confidence guaranteed victory. I was wrong. Debate is like the masterpiece of Kenny G (sorry for the old-school reference, but I’m obviously not going to lecture about how amazing he is). It’s a complete package of art: effort, emotion, skill, everything combined, basically. How I previously saw debate was through a simple perspective of emotion, understanding debate merely as a competition to gain trophies, without even considering what I might learn from it. But in fact, there are many more things to it. It requires a lot of effort to improve your skills, and those skills might also help you in your daily life. Speaking of debate, it obviously offers you many things: you need to be able to speak up your mind, deliver it to people, be persuasive, think strategically, and prepare the best cases. Taking the bigger picture, debate might help a lot for you.
Aluh’s core value: Commitment
Upholding commitment helps me a lot in spar, competition, and everything. Keeping my consistency, encouraging myself to always improve, sparking my internal spirit and hopes; commitment also helps me to push away those negative thoughts and fear of rejection or failure. Commitment always soothes my brain, telling me, ‘It’s okay, at least I tried and gave it a shot,’ reassuring me that every journey is worth the fight for my learning process.
Want to know more about Aluh’s journey?
Reach her out through Instagram @aluhrizki_
#LetsBeBoldToBeAchievers