The need to express

At UTP, Salleh from gilocatur posed me a question. He asked if I wanted our kids to answer back to us. He said that we Malaysians are not used to questioning Authorities.

Ok, let me try to answer that here. But before I do that let me rewind the tape a little. Do you remember the group session at the center? When I got the boys to talk, there was a lot of anger in the beginning and they had no place to express it. Remember the caveat? No violence, no destruction of private property. The end result was a reduction in tension.

I can see Salleh's concern. I'm sure its in the minds of many other people too. If you go to the chess blogs today, you will see many angry words. To me that is not necessarily a bad thing. Years of frustration is being expressed. Some like Jimmy, Peter, Ilham and me put our names to our statements. Some dare not but that is OK too.

And you know what? We are still here. To me that shows a new maturity in MCF. You can see it too if you can let go of your anger and fear.

Try to see it this way. Do you think it is easy for Hamid and Greg to stomach all these attacks? Valid or not. Do you see that the Greg we now have is stronger than the Greg we had 2 years ago? Did you see how he played at the Olympiad? Do you know why he is stronger now?

First GM will continue not to sponsor. Do you understand why? The mistakes have to be corrected or we cannot move on. But this is a chance for change. Maybe Greg is strong enough now to admit the mistakes. I dont know. But the chance is presented anyway.

The noise on the blogs is also good. We can see where the anger lies from what is said and what is avoided. Jimmy and Rationality know what I say is true. Just like the PICA official mentioned below know what I say is true. But they will not admit it. It is hard to admit it. They will not be angry if there is no truth to my arguments. Can you see that?

If they dont face their fears they will not grow. I am hoping that their passion for chess will give them that courage. If they can face their fears they will improve. Their minds will clear. Their chess will improve and they will offer solutions instead of just complaining.

But it is not easy for the adults. That is why I "admire" Ninja. He is still arguing. That means he is still trying. In counselling these people are the ones with the better chance. When they stop talking, the case is more serious. The spirit has died and there is almost no way to reach them now. I hope you can see that.

Now back to Salleh. It is much tougher for the adults. But with the children it can be different. With the kids it can be done this way.... If you have a question and if you have tried your best to answer those question with the known information, then you can come to me. With the kids you can say, your questions must be framed respectfully. I think that is what we all want. Respectful questions. The purpose of which is to learn. But we need to teach them this at a young age. To ask questions and to ask questions respectfully. So answering back and asking questions are 2 different things.

For the adults, there is too much anger; too much fear and frustration. So they do the only thing they know. Attack. But give them time. Soon the anger will abate, after enough venting. They are not yet used to expressing themselves. Most are still hiding in the dark. Dont be quick to condemn them. We normally hate what we see in ourselves. Give this some time. I believe we have the maturity in our chess community to weather this. After all we are in a mind sport and we are only raising our subconscious fears.

Thank you for the question Salleh. I hope I have answered you.