In Thursday night’s debate, the Oxford Union voted in favour of the motion “This house believes that Liberal Democracy has failed the Global South”, with 182 members voting for the motion and 144 members voting against. The emergency motion, “This house would occupy the Rad Cam”, also passed with a vote of acclamation.
The evening’s main event began with an opening from a member of the proposition Arwa Hanin Elrayees, a first year PPE student (later referred to as a “keen fresher”), who reminded the audience that the first opposing speaker, Asad Iqbal, had been an avid supporter of Imran Khan’s campaign to be Oxford Chancellor. She began her speech by declaring that “Liberal democracy is rigidly Western”. Finishing her speech to a round of applause and the offering of a cool glass of water, Elrayess was met with a nod of approval from fellow proposition speaker Brendan O’Hara, SNP MP for Argyll and Bute since 2015.
Opening for the opposition was Asad Iqbal, Oxford Union press officer, who in his speech, accused Former Pakistani Minister for Planning Development and Reform and the second proposition speaker, Professor Ahsan Iqbal, of “[launching] the greatest attack on liberal democracy in history” during his time in government.
Then for the proposition was Brendan O’Hara, who used his time on the floor to criticise the Minister for Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds, for referring to the happening in Ukraine as a “war crime”, with O’Hara saying: “Why is this country able, indeed eager, to call Putin’s actions war crimes, but not those in Israel, when the perpetrator is Netanyahu, and the victims Palestinians?”. Anneliese Dodds was not present at the debate.
Following O’Hara was the Luxembourg Ambassador to the UK, Georges Friden, who was in opposition to the motion. Friden interrogated the term ‘Global South’, reminding the audience he was a lawyer, and that “if you do catch me using the term, it will only be for sake of argument.”
Next was Professor Iqbal for the motion, directing the beginning of his fiery speech for the motion at opening speaker Asad Iqbal: “the first speaker has argued that freeing Imran Khan was a principle of liberal democracy… But I was wondering if he was speaking for Taliban democracy?”. This question was met with a ferocious applause and aggressive nodding from the front bench. Speaking of his assassination attempt in 2018, Iqbal shared: “The bullet that still exists in my stomach gives me a taste of Imran Khan’s liberal democracy every day”, which was followed by another round of applause.
Next up was Ambassador Kurt Volker, a former US Diplomat who served as US special representative to Ukraine during the Trump Presidency, who argued that liberal democracy had not failed the Global South. He received a gallant round of applause when he mischievously remarked: “I have the honor of meeting your president… who was elected”, leaving a pregnant pause to let the remark really sink in. When introducing him as a speaker earlier in the debate, Elrayees remarked with a Union-related quip: “I know from Trump’s administration you were surrounded by vipers, so the Union shouldn’t be any different”, which was surprisingly well received.
Rounding off the debate proposition speaker was Oxford’s own Professor Stefan Dercon, who spent the majority of his speech discussing the importance of reading the question and reminded the audience that “the question is not ‘is liberal democracy a great thing?’”. He then moved on to a long allegory about poisonous frogs which sought to remind the audience that it is difficult to differentiate between a poisonous and non-poisonous frog (a tenuous argument) and closed the case with an unfortunate mishap by asking for us to “vote down the motion – no – vote in favour of the motion.”
Rather cheekily, the final opposition speaker and a Nepalese jurist, Professor Subedi, began by stating: “Since I am the last speaker, I should have the last word, so I can take the liberty of saying whatever I like.” Professor Subedi also made sure to promote his new book about democracy in his speech: “Indeed, I am currently writing a book, and I am going further back than the Magna Carta.” Noted.
Earlier in the evening, the chamber also voted in favour of the rather poignant emergency motion: “This house would occupy the Rad Cam”, following the OA4P occupation of the Radcliffe Camera Library on the 24th January.
Speaking in favour of the motion, a member of OA4P stood up to tell the crowd, briefly, but passionately: “I am not just doing one thing, I am doing every possible thing.” Members of the audience applauded. Some awkwardly shuffled in their seats.
A speaker of the opposition told the audience about his friend’s frustration after pro-Palestine protesters from an autonomous group occupied the Exam Schools on June 13th: “I knew someone who saw his own friend disrupting his engineering exam later that day. And when he exited the exam hall, his friend [the protester] tried to hug him. […] If we can’t respect each other in Oxford, how can you hope for the Israelis and Palestines to start?”
Another speaker of the opposition remarked: “The Palestinian movement needs to be able to reach the average person… Everyone sees this movement as out of touch.”
A vote by acclamation supported the motion, despite, to the best of Cherwell’s knowledge, no known Union members actually ‘occupied’ the Rad Cam on the 24th.
