Dear Editor,
I was there and I witnessed it all. I was impressed too. This has to do with the 2012 Youth Parliament debates. I feel very excited that the whole movement caught the imagination of a decent-sized audience. Right here, I suggest more publicity for this event. The experience for me was wonderful, and I am sure that it was so for the actual participants. I take this opportunity though to express a disagreement or two.
The first is that of the award/s given to the government’s main charge. Honestly, at times I was struggling to follow him (this was also expressed by other members of the audience). I could not assimilate what he was saying. The man hardly stopped to pause. He evidently needs a lesson in the art of basic communication. I could not understand his affective rounding of words, particular his ‘a’ vowel – this virtually become an ‘o’. I include also his excessive grammatical errors. He did not get his subject and pronouns to agree in number and hence his verb agreements all went askew. What was laughable was that his non-stop rambling impressed the judges, or so it would seem. It is inconceivable as to how this individual was given the award as best speaker. There is a flip side to this too.
There was a speaker on the government side who is clearly in a league of his own. He even intimidated his opposition colleagues. Right off the bat, the young man was able to handle his opponents. His presentation was characterized not only by profundity and sufficiency of information, but by correct use of Standard English. As for his vocabulary, maybe even the judges were taken aback. He got nothing – I was shocked.
I trust that the judges/coordinators will realize that these are impressionable young people and their treatment of the youths was utterly undignified. These youths will feel our country has no place for justice and fairness, and I shudder think of the outcome.
I say no more, except to applaud all the participants for an outstanding job.
Yours faithfully,
Shelliza Ali
