The creation of value by MCF.

Ref: Here.

Am I being fair when I say MCF has created no value in over 30 years? Lets look at that today. What would value look like and how can it be created?

Lets look at what it is not first. Do you remember a few crony blogs of MCF writing recently about certain senior players and how many times each of them has played at the Olympiads so far over the last 30 years or so? Is that a good thing? Can we say that those same players have slipped further and further behind in International standing over the same period in absolute as well as in relative terms?

Actually they represent what I have called the glass ceiling in Malaysian chess. So they are the cap. Jimmy is the cap. And the cap has been tightly closed for that same period.

If we had practiced healthy competition we would have learnt a lot in those 30 years. We would have been able to narrow the gap between us and our goal. Instead we have lost more and more ground relative to even our nearest neighbours. Instead we have practised unhealthy competition; the art of deception and sabotage. So was value created?

True, MCF finally brought in written selection in 2010. But they are now reversing this again. If you look at the comments here it seems that even the written selection for the juniors are being tweaked to serve another purpose. What is the purpose of not giving the official letter of offer? Does that not reduce the chances of players that need sponsorship, even if they qualify, from playing for Malaysia? There is another practice. They don't go strictly down the line. So they can jump from No.2 to No.6 for instance. It seems possible that the reasons are that No.3 to 5 may not be rich enough or play ball enough for certain officials to benefit from the selection. Ask around or look carefully for yourself to see if what I say may be true.

So what is value? The value are in our players are they not? Their gifts and talents nurtured into tangible results measured by International standing. But they all crash at the senior level no matter how promising they were at the beginning. Now why is that?

So could it be the consequence of the practice unhealthy competition? The terrible waste of energy and the gifts of our youth. Isn't that the only way we can prevent the young and gifted from overtaking the old and worn out? So is the fact that Jimmy and Mok are still playing at the Olympiad a good thing or a really crazy and bad thing? Are we celebrating our weakness, our failure?

What happens after the sabotage of the efforts to build? What happens after they have torn down another player? The answer is nothing. Our chess has not improved one inch. We are just as lousy at chess as before the "win" by this method. No value has been created.

MCF focusses only on certain tournaments and not in development. They focus on tournaments where the officials make money. And so their activities center around that. Even selection for the juniors are in danger of turning into another cash cow for certain officials. That is really why we have no proper policies and guidelines.

MCF needs to create value in Malaysian chess. That is what they are created to do. It is not a source of easy private income at the expense of all the players in the Country. Rich or poor, young or old and for all races. That is the value that is missing.

So get rid of those people at the next AGM. We now know the way forward. Healthy competition. Put in the people who support this.