Force field-Sponsors

The first requirement of Patronage is obedience.

This is my conclusion after meeting Dato Tan. The realisation didnt come at once but rather in bits and pieces. As I reflected back to my time in PICA; in subsequent meetings with him and DKLS together; in observing the officials in MCF closer...

I come from the private sector where every negotiation is hard fought. Point by tedious point. We do not respect titles. We only respect what is on the table. No vague promises and no waffles. That is how I was trained by my mentors.

So I was a little surprised when I was offered a deal by Dato Tan that obviously did not work. He did not seem interested in results.

These are what I believe are the symptoms of the ills from patronage:

The people with the skills are sidelined and the people who are obedient are supported. The net result is that mediocrity is celebrated. I am beginning to understand why at our postmortems everyone praises everyone else despite a sham result.

Genuine sponsors with legitimate requests are turned down. They are not needed. Why work for the money when you can just be a yes man and the money will come anyway. The sense of helplessness pervades the air because we dont understand how decisions are made....my bewilderment over why Asean was deliberately sabotaged. Made no sense at the time. Makes much more sense when you understand how patronage works and see how that culture permeates down the line.

I now wonder if this has not affected even our players. In this climate where all are busy making excuses, is it too far a stretch to say that the players can rationalise a draw even when they are winning on the board? Does this show a loss of confidence? But its Adam....forget what is on the table....we must respect the title....

The net result of our experimentation with patronage has shown no tangible and real result. We lament year after year. Can we say that this type of sponsorship is a failure?

If we can get our act together; we can meet the corporates as equals on the field. Give them what they are looking for ie. mainly publicity and get what we want in return, will we feel genuine pride? The type of pride that can only come from achievement.

Doesnt chess show us that when we win in a clean healthy competition we get that rush of well being; that sense of confidence. Could the fact that fixed competitions flourished for as long as it has also come from the culture of patronage?

Could this also be why we have no GM? If one can be bought here, will we have done it? Just for an empty title.

We can get genuine sponsors, of course we can. We just need to get out of this helpless mindset. We have many very talented parents with many skills. We need to utilise all that we have. We cannot just sit down and cry out to one man to continually save us again and again. When we grow up, the GM will come. Come on... The word means GRAND MASTER.

We need to wake up from our delusions and meet the real world on its own terms. Get rid of our imagined fears and take the bull by its horns. All of us. Not just MCF. Each has a role. Stop asking First GM, MCF, Ah Kow, Ah Beng, Ahmad, Ali or Muthu. We can each do something. In a chess game you are all alone. You have to make your own decisions. What is your next move?

So maybe its a good thing that Dato Tan is finally letting us grow up. See what we are really made of.