Committees
General Assembly - SPECPOL
Chairs
SILAS KOH
LINUS LIM
Topic
Exploitation of Maritime Resources Outside of Exclusive Economic Zone
Press Release
Day 1:
Day 1 involved the delegates orientating themselves with the situation and forming blocs to work on a resolution. With the opening speeches, the delegates made their countries’ stances clear and blocs began to form within the council. Though the delegates took some time to settle into the format of the discussion and to the procedures of the house, the debate slowly became more intense. China’s aggressive stance on her ownership over the South China Sea drew much criticism and was subject to scrutiny by the rest of the members of the council, and a heated debate ensued mainly between the delegate of China and the rest of the council. As the delegate of China attempted to justify their claim that the majority of the South China Sea rightfully belonged to them, delegates of the United States of America, Malaysia, and Singapore protested to such a bold claim. The delegate of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea also took on an aggressive, militarist-centric stance on the subject matter--requesting that their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) be widened for the sake of nuclear missile testing. Such a bold and selfish aim only drew more outcry from the rest of the council, and the entire council became embroiled in an argument regarding China’s and DPRK’s stances on the issue. The proceedings of an unmoderated caucus was then introduced to them, where the chairs took the opportunity to guide and direct the debate towards more pertinent matters such as creating a resolution that would incorporate an outline on how EEZs should be governed by the international community. The delegates of Iceland and Brunei then took the lead in discussing how EEZs would be handled and managed by the international community, and for the first time, debate flowed in a favourable direction that allowed for all countries to partake and defend their interests, as well as making compromises to aid in the international effort to arrive at a sound resolution to the given issue. While taking the lead in this discussion, both delegates displayed admirable eloquence. Thus concluded Day 1, with Day 2 promising much more.
Day 2:
Day 2 began with an announcement that a crisis had broken out, leaving the council to pause debate regarding Exclusive Economic Zones and head into debate regarding the crisis, which was regarding an apocalyptic situation in which the citizens of Europe were infected with a virus causing them to become zombies, attacking others and hence spreading the disease. As the council faced increasing public dissonance in France, with riots breaking out as a result of the government withholding information regarding the disease, the council had to work fast in order to curb the spread of the illness as soon as possible, and also to alleviate public tensions as quickly as they could. As debate did not revolve around effective and efficient solutions to the issue at hand, the virus quickly spread to Germany, Spain, and even Shanghai. Due to the council’s initial ineffectiveness, the Southeast Asian region had also started seeing traces of the disease as well. However, the council quickly recovered from their initial blunder of being indecisive, and drastic measures were taken place: the UK closed the Eurostar highway, France declares martial law in order to kill off the infected, later building a dome around the country to halt the spread of the disease to neighbouring countries, and China declared a blockade which denied entry to all foreigners for a span of 7 days while they dealt with their share of the disease in their homeland. However, with the council losing focus of the actual issue once more: DPRK declaring a locking-up of all foreigners and Iran cutting off ties with Turkey and Iraq, the disease was again allowed to run rampant. In spite of that, the council did not lose hope and Brunei led the council in search of a cure for the disease by conducting research on travellers, in the hope of a possible cure or a vaccine. After the submission of a joint council directive which outlined a multi-faceted solution regarding the outbreak of the disease, involving the containment of within the affected countries as well as the transportation of various medical teams from countries such as the USA and Iceland to the affected sites, the council eventually managed to triumph over the challenge posed to them and saved humanity from the wrath of the undead in a stunning turn of events.Throughout the crisis debate, the delegate of USA showed great ability to think on his feet and also contributed much to the discussion with his unique ideas.
With the crisis effectively being resolved, SPECPOL was once again free to resume debate regarding their initial topic: the Exploitation of Maritime Resources Outside of Exclusive Economic Zone. With little time on their hands, the debate was kept short and concise, with the delegates driving the main points home with accuracy and succinctness. A resolution was then motioned to be discussed on, and the two blocs put forth their final stands. With a majority of the votes, this resolution passed, and thus concluded the discussion and Day 2 of VSMUN.
~Linus Lim & Silas Koh
These are the delegates whom we want to recognise for their outstanding performance. The Best delegation goes to the delegate of the Republic of Iceland (Davene Lye Qian Yi, Observer). The Outstanding Delegation goes to the delegate of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Eugene Goh Wei Hao). Some of the Honourable Delegations are the delegate of the French Republic (Mirza) and the delegate of the United States of America (Connor Duigan).
General Assembly - DISEC
Chairs
RIQI HANZRUDYN
BRIAN CHOW
Topic
Handling of Failed States
Press Release
Day 1:
Many of the delegates came into the conference confused as to how it would proceed, but it took a while and they managed to familiarise themselves with the procedures of MUN. A good point is that all the delegates did their position papers and most of them were fairly well done with some exceptional position papers. Overall delegates demonstrated that they had at least read up sufficiently on the topic of the handling of failed states of Syria and Yemen. As the delegates further familiarised themselves with MUN protocol and proceedings, debates started getting more heated. Some of them developed confidence, with many delegates that were previously silent opting to speak and putting themselves on the general speaker’s list. In general after the first or second speeches, delegates overcame their embarrassment/fear of speaking and this really brought up the intensity of the debate. Topics discussed on the first day were the feasibility of air strikes, the migrant crisis and a moderated caucus on military intervention. In general throughout all of the topics delegates stuck to their country stance and made decisions/stands based on what their country would actually support in real life. Delegates were generally respectful to each other and to the Chairs. The delegate of Australia also brought up many readings to the conference which the chairs found to be a show of dedication. Some of the delegates also used their break time to discuss the topic which was another good point
Day 2:
Day 2 started with the announcement by the Secretary-General that a crisis had broken out, and as a result the council paused the debate on Resolution Writing and moved on to crisis. From this point on DISEC was merged with SPECPOL for General Assembly, on the crisis of a zombie crisis arising in Europe. Silas and Linus chaired the crisis from this point on, refer to SPECPOL course of Debate
These are the delegates whom we want to recognise for their outstanding performance. The Best delegation goes to the delegate of the Republic of Yemen (Param Srinivasan). The Outstanding Delegation goes to the delegate of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Dyllan Tan). Some of the Honourable Delegations are the delegate of the Commonwealth of Australia (Jeremy Fong Jian Wei) and the delegate of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Kung Ye Fay).
Security Council
Chairs
SEBASTIAN KHOO
DAMIAN LEE
Topic
Cyberwarfare
Press Release
Flow of debate
A general explanation on MUN was given at the beginning by the two chairs first before the debate swung into action. On Day 1, although we started slightly slowly, that was understandable towards the dais as this was the first time for the majority of the students taking part in this event. There were a few eloquent speakers which rose up to the task at the start when prompted and began to spin the debate forward. However, slight intervention was needed by the dais to explain some agendas that they have to partake in so as to continue the flow of debate without going in circles too many times. There were a few people who take the backseat at first due to not knowing what is going on, but after a few sessions, they got into the groove of it and began to voice up too. Our council was mostly split into two sections, divided and headed by two talented speakers. Both came up with splendid ideas that helped really spear the debate as their creativity brought in new aspects of the topic which people could build upon. Later this two people would be awarded prizes at the end of VSMUN. Many directives were made and a resolution was made at the end which was approved by both the chair and the entire council as an valid resolution to the stand against cyber warfare at that time. However the Chair would like to note that only some students had done extensive research on this sector and many although knowing much about the topic, neglects research on their own personal portfolio and country. There are many things that each role could take if properly research which will definitely enhance the quality of debate in the future.
Overall, The dais both feel that the debate done in this council has done extremely well and there was many good critiques and comments that helped build up to the final resolution. All of them understand the rules ensuring that a smooth debate was carried out.They knew where they stood and who they were with thus they were able to form alliances out of mutual benefit which did indeed help the debate too. This supposed “teamwork” was one which helped the resolution to be delivered splendidly and on time.
Flow of Crisis
Crisis was a new experience to all of us and there were many errors on our side too. A lack of manpower in the backroom has caused information to be generated at a slightly slower pace which affected the fast pace debate that was happening in the room due to the importance of information that was coming in. The debate topics were interesting to our council and many people took part in the discussion of the topic eagerly. However one issue was raised in our council and that was the lack of information given or a lack of clarity in the information rendered to the delegates. So As the dais, i feel that more manpower should be put into the backroom to ensure that a steady flow of debate would continue. Furthermore, i feel that this should be put into an exclusive sector as there is a lot of issues that could be built onto one and i feel this would be very interesting to delegates who decides to partake in this crisis mun in the future. We as dias has also gained feedback from the delegates that they enjoyed crisis most out of the whole MUN although there were a few who disliked the fast pace of the crisis as research was mostly done on the spot and ideas have to be generated on the same pace as everyone else in the room which was taxing for some of them. Overall, i feel that crisis was a success which we learnt many things that could been improved from this experience so that our next VSMUN would definitely a better one.
Conclusion
There are many things that we can look at from this MUN experience.
Although an increased amount of participation would indeed fill up more spots ensuring a more healthy debate, the delegates in this VSMUN was able to produce substantial debate following what was given in study guides and after that what could be researched on top of the information given. Security council had a good debate session which included intense speeches, a healthy amount of moderated and unmoderated caucuses, and very creative or unorthodox ideas on how to tackle this situation. The dais required little intervention and it was very productive session. The resolution was fine in the end too despite only 2 days of debate. Overall, the dais feels that this is a great success.
These are the delegates whom we want to recognise for their outstanding performance. The Best delegation goes to the delegate of the Commonwealth of Australia (Poh Yee Hsien Jovan). The Outstanding Delegation goes to the delegate of the Republic of Singapore (Matthew Yip Tze Herng). Some of the Honourable Delegations are the delegate of Japan (Syed Iman Bin Syed Amir Shah), delegate of the United States of America (Kieron Seven Lee Jun Wei), and delegate of the People's Republic of China (Tay Siang Jet).
Human Rights Council
Chairs
SOMESH SAHU
ERVIN LIM
Topic
Torture and Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Press Release
The Human Rights Council (HRC) started off with a shaky start on the first day of council session. Delegates were relatively unsure as to which sub topics to focus on. They had touched on many pertinent and controversial issues such as the application of Sharia Law and death penalty but they did not elaborate on these topics extensively. The delegates of the Nation of Brunei, Malaysia and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) tried to develop the discussion into greater details by motioning for moderated and unmoderated caucuses. Eventually, the delegates were able to focus on one of the most pertinent issues surrounding Cruel and Unusual punishment which is the application of Sharia law. The agreement to debate on the issue of Sharia law prompted much discussions on whether the Sharia law should be less harsh and whether such a compromise in the application of Sharia Law would be feasible. This was how the council had progressed on the first day.
On the second day, delegates were initially engaged in General Debate. Suddenly, a crisis broke out where 100s of Americans are detected by border police congregating en masse at the Texan-Mexico border. The delegate of Norway immediately motioned for an unmoderated caucus. After the caucus, the delegate of Norway sent a directive to declare the creation of a new state known as Northen Norway which was to allow relocation of American refugees into the Norwegian state. Certain nations also promised to send humanitarian aid in the form of food, medical services and money to the victims trapped in the civil war between United State of Freedonia and the United State of America(USA). As the crisis continues, the delegation of Malaysia sent a press release that the food provided by DPRK were drugged. In response to that, many delegates of the council brought up the point that the Prime Minister of Malaysia is not trustworthy and therefore, they were skeptical of Malaysia’s statement. Delegates were also involved in debating and introducing directives on how American refugees could be safely transported out of the turmoil in USA to the newly formed state, Northern Norway.
After the crisis ended, delegates proceeded back to normal council sessions where a moderated caucus was raise to discuss on the relevance of capital punishment. Countries that felt that capital punishment is redundant includes Norway, while countries that felt that capital punishment is necessary includes USA and Saudi Arabia. Thereafter, a resolution drafted by Sweden was introduced and followed by various friendly and unfriendly amendments. Finally, the resolution was voted upon with 8 delegates were voting for the resolution to pass with 1 delegate voting against. The resolution passed and the secretariats were very pleased with the efficiency and cooperate shown throughout these two days’ council sessions.
The Dais were please to with the performance of the following delegates. The delegate of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was award for Best Position Paper. The delegate of Brunei, Denmark and Norway were recognised as Honourable Mentions. The delegate of Malaysia was the outstanding delegate and the delegate of Sweden was the best delegate over these two days’ council sessions. The Dais congratulate all delegates’ diligence and contribution for making these two days an memorable experience for them.
These are the delegates whom we want to recognise for their outstanding performance. The Best delegation goes to the delegate of the Kingdom of Sweden (Raven Garcia). The Outstanding Delegation goes to the delegate of Malaysia (Timothy Yap). Some of the Honourable Delegations are the delegate of the Kingdom of Denmark (Wan Ridhwan Bin Wan Kamaruddin) and delegate of the Kingdom of Norway (Martin Schweiger).