ex tempore

iskl victory, originally uploaded by mincaye.

In Latin, it literally means 'out of the time.' In other words, 'on the spur of the moment.'

Extemporaneous Speaking is a Forensics event in which the participant is given a question regarding current issues, and 30 minutes to prepare a speech using provided resources.


Considered one of the hardest events, it was into this 'deep end' that I was hurled by Miss Shanti in 2002, when I was in Form 3.

And it was here that I won the Gold Medal on Saturday, five tournaments later. T.S. Eliot's words come to mind (my favourite Eliot lines; also Miss Shanti's):

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

On a more contemporary note, the bridge of U2's 'All Because of You' covers similar territory:

I’m alive
I’m being born
I just arrived, I’m at the door
Of the place I started out from
And I want back inside...

For some reason, I never really liked this song; it ranks as one of my least favourite on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. But on Saturday, the words of the chorus rang clearly amidst the euphoria of victory:

All because of you
All because of you
All because of you
I am

God led me into this, and year after year it's been getting better and better... until this climactic point. What a way to exit!

Mum and Dad gave me a card that night, and quoted Psalm 21:2-3:

You have granted him the desire of his heart
and have not withheld the request of his lips.
You welcomed him with rich blessings
and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.

And as I reflected on the word 'gold,' the majestic passage in Revelation 4 suggested itself:

Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads... the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

"You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being."

And as I read the words of the elders, Romans 11:36 flashed across my mind:

For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.


Wow! It's like a pattern in all of creation, that absolutely everything travels full-circle: we begin in God, live through him, and end in him.

Max Lucado ended his book, The Applause of Heaven, with the depiction of heaven as our final home, where our last flight will arrive and depart no more. And he quoted Matthew 5:12:

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven...

The Extemp speech I gave on Saturday would be my last at the ISKL Forensics (at least in the capacity of a contestant); in many ways, it felt like I finally reached home.

On the way home, in the car, in the dark, I said a prayer of thanks.

And as I thought about it, I realised that the victory was so much sweeter coming at the end of my 'career,' than at any other time. Surely Beethoven must have felt like this, to have composed his most magnificent symphony last of all, ending with a bang.


In that final speech, I opened with a quote from U2's 'Like a Song':

Angry words won't stop the fight
Two wrongs won't make it right
A new heart is what I need
Oh, God make it bleed...

The question was, "Will the Shiite/Sunny religious tensions make stability impossible in Iraq?" I answered yes.

At the moment, Shern Ren is trying to convert Tee Ming's video of the speech into digital format. Once that is done, I'll probably put the speech up here.

Sometimes judges tend to get carried away with their comments, so I don't know if the following is very reliable. Anyway, one judge wrote:

"I was really impressed by your speech: I found it informative, persuasive and totally logical. Well done. Go into politics."

Thing is, I learnt the entire topic within the 30 minutes of preparation time. Prior to that, I was somewhat ignorant of the nature of the tensions; I only knew of the existence of the Shiite and the Sunni Muslims.

So at any rate, I am not an authority on Iraqi sociopolitics ;-)


A brief description of the montage above:

That's Jon Mah holding the Sweepstakes trophy for best overall school (yes, we beat even the ISKL due to an impressive run in the preliminary rounds) and the Rafidah Aziz shield for best local government school.

We started in the same year, but because he's a year older than me, last year was his final outing. As such, he never saw this victory in the course of his involvement. Now it has come, and he was there to witness it.

Below him is a close-up of the gold medal. And that's me punching the air with ISKL teachers looking on; from left: Alan McLean, Sue Francis and Noren Sahari.

But the group photo at the bottom... ah, this is the most meaningful of all. Standing, from left, are Fang Hai, me, Mrs Leslie Muri, Miss Shanti, Mrs Sally Painter and Jon Siao. Kneeling are Moi and Gustave.

Mrs Muri introduced me to Extemp when I began, and it was she who constantly encouraged me year after year. I know no judge who is as generous, constructive and encouraging with comments on the adjudication sheet.

Last year, Mrs Muri retired from teaching, and so Mrs Painter took over as Extemp coach for the Forensics. She's been teaching at the ISKL for some twenty years if I'm not mistaken.

The theatre (where the finals are held) in the background, the team and the teachers that made it happen... this will always remain a part of me.


All things considered, when I stand at the podium to speak, my words are not my own; they are the voices of my friends and teachers, and the echo of my God.