Feature

Walking Down The Path To Glory

M. Sanjeeb Hossain

The BRACU Winning Team: from Left: Kazi Tuney Binte Zinnat, the team coach Assistant Professor Tureen Afroz, M. Sanjeeb Hossain and Muhsina Farhat Chowdhury.

I first came across the term 'mooting' when I was a third year student at the School of Law, BRAC University. I overheard discussions that the law school would organize a moot court workshop where potential 'mooters' would be identified and trained from a pool of interested candidates. I have heard passing comments as to mooting being something along the lines of law based debates. I had debated before representing my university, which led me to spontaneously sign up for the workshop when the offer came along. However, little did I know that I was about to embark upon one of the most exciting journeys of my life.

Later that year (2008), I along with two of my other teammates from the newly formed BRAC Moot Court team and our coach, Assistant Professor Tureen Afroz, attended the 4th National Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition as 'observers'. The competition organizers had kept a slot of observing teams that intended to participate the following year. The event was funded and organized by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and was hosted by the Faculty of Law at the University of Dhaka. With star gazed eyes that year, we saw the best mooters of Bangladesh engage in a ruthless battle of intellect and oratory skill in a real life court room atmosphere, before a panel of eminent judges. The Dhaka University team won that competition. It was their fourth title in a row and they had rightfully emerged as the mooting giants of Bangladesh. Chittagong University was not far behind either. They marginally lost in the final to Dhaka, commanding a great of respect in the Bangladesh mooting community.

The year did not take long to roll over and as we approached 2009, I realized that BRAC Law School would not be 'observing' this time; we would be taking part in the real thing. In the mean time my confidence had reached an all time high after I was adjudicated '2nd Best Speaker' from a total of 56 mooters coming from all over South Asia and the UK at the Moot Court Competition organized by the National Law School of India University (NSLIU) at Bangalore, India. The moot court problem for the 5th Henry Dunant 2009 came roughly a month prior to the competition that was supposed to be held from the 20th to 22nd of August 2009. For us novices, the game had begun. The BRAC Law School was about to take part in a mooting competition for the first time in our Bangladeshi soil. We had a month's time to prepare two 'memorials', popularly known as 'briefs', a total of 50 pages of scholarly legal arguments 'for and 'against' Albert Wiseman, the accused party in the mooting problem. Under the guidance of our coach, Assistant Professor Tureen Afroz and the thorough research carried out by our Team Researcher Muhsina Farhat Chowdhury, we slowly but cautiously prepared our memorials. I cannot help but also mention the assistance offered to our team by Dr. Shahdeen Malik, Dr. Saira Rahman Khan and Mahmud Karim in leading our practice sessions. I was Lead Counsel while Kazi Tuney Binte Zinnat; a debating legend in the Bangla debating community was the Junior Counsel of our team. I doubt whether it will be possible for Tuney, Muhsina and me to forget the endless training sessions where we had to give timed speeches based on the memorials we had prepared. Dr. Khan and Mahmud Karim, both faculties at our Law School unselfishly interrupted our speeches asking the most obscure legal questions trying to catch us off guard. Those were not the most pleasant of moments, but we realized how tremendously we benefited in the process.

August 20th was the fateful day; the 5th National Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition 2009 began. Mooters coming from the law departments of 12 public and private universities across Bangladesh had arrived to strike gold with their memorials mooting skills. The teams included running champions- Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, BRAC, Eastern, South East, Northern, Premier, Stamford, UODA, Sylhet International and Dhaka International University.

It took us three rounds, i.e. the preliminaries, quarters and semis, and a total of 6 tiring mooting sessions to reach the final of the competition. There were times when we felt we did not perform at the level we had the potential to, while at other times we were flying high after seeing encouraging responses from the judges who were pleased with the answers we gave to the questions posed to us. I cannot help but mention one specific moment I shall never forget in my enite life. In the semi-finals, we were up against the surprise team of the competition, South East University. South East had declared prior to the beginning of the competition that the remaining participating teams would be in for a real surprise. They had indeed kept their promise, as they rolled over to the semi finals like a tank with no holds barred. After Tuney and I had completed our speeches, Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed asked me to approach the bench to answer a particular question. I knew of Justice Ahmed from before as the only Ph.D. degree holding Justice in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. I had also read 'The Ishtiaq Papers' which was prefaced by Justice Ahmed. With a pair of weak legs and a dry throat I stood up and bowed as I approached the bench. I felt like having one last glass of water. I will not go into the details of the question I was asked but I after giving my point of view in relation to the question, Justice Ahmed nodded and said, 'Okay'. Soon after the semis were over, we were all having lunch at our tables. I kept eyeing Justice Ahmed who was sitting at a nearby table. His impeccable table manners and the general aura he carried with him made me feel 'inadequate'. As I daydreamed about being a PhD degree holding Justice one day, Justice Ahmed suddenly approached our table to exchange pleasantries with Dr. Khan. I immediately stood up feeling even more 'inadequate'. As he was about to leave, Justice Ahmed to my utter disbelief looked at me and said, 'Good speech'. He extended his hand so that I could shake it. When I was a child a friend of mine in the United States had shook hands with Michael Jordan, he told me that he never washed his hands again since that day. So, after shaking Justice Ahmed's hand I felt that I had gone through one of those moments where I did not want to wash my hands either!

We eventually made it to the finals and defeated Chittagong University by a 0.75 margin. It was such a close call for teams but that is just how competitive it gets at the highest level. As our team was declared Champions of Bangladesh, I broke into tears despite being 24 years old. Little Muhsina sat in her chair gushing out air from her chest as if she was having an asthma attack. Tuney stood with a magnanimous smile on her face showing everyone her sparkling white teeth. I hugged Dr. Tureen Afroz, without her guidance none of this would have been possible. My guru Dr. Shahdeen Malik was watching from a distance along with my parents and others. It was our moment of truth and no one could take it away from us. Our hard and honest efforts had paid off. As Champions of the nation, we would be representing Bangladesh at the regional round where the best teams of South Asia would lock horns in their bid for mooting supremacy.

Child Prodigy

IT is indeed a miracle that at an age when a child is suppose to play games in the computer and do colouring with crayons, Roopkotha is capable of operating the computer all by himself. Wasiq Farhan who is only three years five months and nineteen days old was born in 27th January 2006.Phenomenal it is, this child does not only click with a mouse but can rather manoeuvre with the internet-browsing, operate application software including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Alongside he can also edit images in Photoshop.