TMUN is in session! What was the theme this year and what did our students debate about? Aarav M, Year 13 student and TMUN's Secretary-General, tells us more.

Tanglin recently opened its doors to host its first external Model UN conference in over 3 years. We welcomed over 160 participants from 5 other schools, as delegates and chairs. Model United Nations is a simulation of the actual United Nations where participants represent delegates from different countries and attempt to solve real-world issues with the policies and perspectives of their assigned country. 

For example, a student may be assigned to represent China and will have to work on issues such as the situation in Taiwan and improving Cross-Strait relations. Our theme for this conference was It’s a Rich Man’s World. Aside from being an iconic ABBA line, we felt that this statement embodies many of the issues that the post-pandemic world is dealing with, particularly inequality. The theme allowed a broad range of topics to be discussed, ranging from gender and income inequality to territorial disputes.  

Opening speeches
The opening ceremony was a memorable event with some engaging speeches and excellent performances. The ceremony was kicked off by the Senior School Chamber Choir, performing their rendition of Money, Money, Money by ABBA. This was a great way of further highlighting our theme. 

The Secretary-General, Aarav M (Year 13), then made his opening remarks, outlining how each committee was tied into the theme and the need for collaboration and teamwork over the weekend. We were delighted to have Mr Chris Seal, Head of Senior School, follow this up by extending a warm welcome to all participants whilst also sharing what our theme meant to him. He explained the vast inequality that needs to be considered at universities in the UK, and the implications of coming from a state school compared to a private school.

A special guest
We were also honoured to welcome Dr Trisha Craig from Yale-NUS college as our keynote speaker for the opening ceremony. She is the Vice President of Engagement at Yale-NUS College, and a Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences (Sociology and Political Science). She delivered a very engaging speech regarding two separate problems characterised by our theme: the fact that it was a ‘Man’s World’ and that it’s a ‘Rich World’. She honed in on how activities such as MUN are important in building our knowledge on global matters, the need for our future leaders to be very knowledgeable regarding inequality, and the need for future leaders to develop the right skill sets in order to address it. She recommended students develop good data analysis skills, which underlie good policy making and explore international opportunities to study and work.

The United Nations has several different bodies that are more focused on different areas of the world, such as the Human Rights Council. TMUN22 had seven of these committees e.g. the Environment, the Security Council, and the International Court of Justice. 

The debate begins
The debate began on Friday, with opening speeches highlighting each country’s stance on the various issues within each committee and the one they would like to focus on resolving the most. The rest of the evening was spent lobbying and merging with other delegates who wished to focus on the same issue. Delegates created a formal resolution on each topic collectively, to be debated by the whole committee. 

Saturday saw the bulk of the debate. All committees were busy debating, amending, and considering all of their resolutions in the hope of passing them by the end of the day. On Sunday, the TMUN22 Secretariat decided to hold a joint crisis, with all delegates in one room combining to form bigger delegations. For example, all the delegates representing Russia in every committee joined together as one. They tried to resolve the situation - Elon Musk had discovered a rare metal that was more powerful than anything that had ever been seen before.

Building block for the future
The team of eight Year 13s worked incredibly hard over nine months to plan this conference, from catering to deciding on guest speakers. We hope that this conference becomes a building block for future TMUN conferences, re-establishing Tanglin as one of the premier MUN conferences in Singapore.

See below for photos of the event: