And the truth shall set you free.

Ref: To comments and shoutbox. Here.

I suffer from no illusions that the matter will be resolved here but I think the lies can be exposed. If you have read what I said about the Mark/Sumant case, my point was that this is a common occurence when the kids are under pressure.

So here is the long winded version. Sumant won, he gave the win to Mark. They submitted the results to Uztaz. Greg spotted it and told the boys that the arbiter was not happy with the results. Marcus was the arbiter. Greg questioned Sumant and Mark admitted that he lost to save Sumant any embarrasment and the result was changed. Marcus came up to me later to explain. I told him no need. That was the correct decision. I even had a conversation with Greg about it after and we agreed that we need to keep the competitions clean.

Mr Yeap brought it up to me again in Subic Bay and again I said that was the correct decision. But still I praised Mark. Why? Because as we know it is not easy to admit the truth even when caught red handed. That took courage. So go back and read again what I said. No lies there. I have admitted what happened many times. My post was just a point to illustrate how difficult it is to make the right decisions under pressure.

None of the juniors are angels and if we do not carefully advice them, they will find it easier to take the short cuts. But we need everybody's cooperation to do this.

So lets juxtaposition the above case to the Lim Zhuo Ren case. Another short cut case. Maybe he made a mistake in signing up for FGM without consultation with his trainer and parents first. But I felt it was his right to explore. The solution was so simple. Call up and say he changed his mind. But telling him that he had an assured place at SEA games etc. was surely wrong. And what else did his "advisers" ask him to do?

So Chin Seng, let me tell you what I adviced Mark. Yes, he is angry with Zhuo Ren and no more talking. I told Mark to judge himself first before he judged Zhuo Ren. I reminded him of his own difficulties in making the right decisions in the past when under pressure. I believe that they will both get over it in time. Kids usually do.

Chin Seng, you also said I caused enmity amongst the juniors. I think you need to stay objective. You may have been affected when the decision was made for selection; I know you were disappointed at the last NJ. But the point is still this. All the juniors will need to prove that they are the best over the table and not anywhere else.

As far as I know the only friendship affected is between Zhuo Ren and Mark and I do hope that they will both learn from this and laugh about it later. So can you explain that sentence again? And for your further information, Mark's problem is not in having too few friends but more the opposite.

But do you not see the hypocrisy Chin Seng? My accusers are the ones that have lied and slandered. And they even went so low as to attack a young junior. Have you seen them having the courage to say that they are wrong even when presented with the evidence? I do hope you won't join them. Get over the selection. Prepare well for the next National Junior. I wish Li Tian all the best but we will come prepared too.

I will answer Peter tomorrow. This post is already too long.