I got an angry phone call last night.

A good friend of mine called me last night and accused me of being a turn coat for having congratulated MCF for what looks like a promising calender. Apparently that is the consensus he arrived at after talking with another close friend of mine. He now accuses me of being aligned to Greg.

Now why is this? When did I do an about turn? What is the struggle that FGM's been engaged in?

I spoke up about the sabotage of the training of the Juniors for Asean 2010 that appeared to have originated from within MCF. I spoke up about the abuse of selection criteria where players outside the criteria were brought into the play off. I spoke up on the reversal of selection for last year's Olympiad. And I spoke up about the need for money to not disappear from MCF.

It's has always been about issues. It has always been what is good for Malaysian chess. I have never said that I hated Greg or Hamid or Jimmy or Peter. Yes, I have used their actions as examples so that we may learn from it. But what if any good is done by Greg or Hamid or Jimmy or Peter? Isn't that what we want? Right is right and wrong is wrong. We encourage the right actions and we criticise the wrong ones.

If you go back to all my writing I believe you will find that when they do something good, I give it equal weightage. Surely the point is to do what we can to improve MCF so that our players are given the best chance to do better in the International arena.

And so I have given support to the people that have echoed those issues in the committee of MCF. Does that mean that I like one person better than another? Very frankly I am fond of Greg and Hamid but I will oppose any action that I feel is not correct. It's about right and wrong. It's not about hate.

I want to see Jimmy back on the saddle and fighting for his place on the senior squad but I will oppose his attempts to get in via the back door. And I will direct people to his site to show how he had attacked the Juniors. And to show how he crosses all boundaries of decency by attacking my son. Have I ever brought his family into the equation? It's about his actions that have and still are damaging Malaysian chess while pretending to do otherwise.

I want to see Peter become a better trainer if it's at all possible. Why? Because we need good trainers for us to get out of the rut we are in. But I will oppose and expose the fact that he is abusing an entire State Association and using the banning of players stronger than what he can produce to hide his deep weaknesses. It's about the right way and the wrong way to succeed.

I have even made appeals to all the parties concerned to talk nice within MCF. Why? Because while we should be struggling about issues on how to improve and not sweep it under the carpet we still need to try to talk nice for after the struggle we are still on the same team. After this struggle we will still be Team Malaysia versus the others on the International arena, isn't it?

This also applies to our chess players. If you have won your place in healthy competition then there is a greater chance that the players will work together in a team event overseas, there is a greater chance that they will share knowledge to fight players who have better support and training from their Federation overseas. There is a greater chance because there will be less ill feelings.

I saw the spirit of our Juniors in NJ2010 among the 6 players during the play off. That spirit of 1Malaysia is to be cherished. I saw that spirit after we beat Singapore in Jan 2011 among the parents and players on the train ride back. But how quickly we forget.

What am I saying? I am saying that dirty tricks do not foster this spirit. We foster this spirit when we work together to succeed. We foster this spirit when we know that every member on the team deserves to be there.

And our aim should be to repeat those conditions where we have seen success rather than the failures that we see when we use what I call the "Jimmy method".

So if MCF now genuinely supports the issues, should we not also support them too?

So FGM salutes the members of the committee that have stood up against many verbal abuses and sabotage to continue speaking up. And FGM equally salutes those that have been responsible for many of the bad decisions to now have the courage to correct things so that all chess players in Malaysia have a chance to succeed by playing good chess and not by learning how to use the back doors.

If you think about it, I am sure there are still people who will oppose any change for the better, selection etc. So a new dynamics is forming slowly within MCF because of this struggle on the real issues. We should encourage this shift. Lets encourage those that support improvement and lets continue to oppose those that only want to manipulate MCF for their selfish gains.

So once again. Well done MCF for a good calender. I hope you will also have selection for the next Olympiad as well. And I hope that you will have good selection criteria and not "fixed" ones to allow a non fighting team to represent Malaysia again. And I hope you can stick to the selection criteria this time and not import players from outside it like you did for the last SEA games.

But that is the struggle for the next step. For now we at least have selection again.

All my best to Malaysian chess for the year of change, 2013.

So my friend, if Greg does something good, do we still oppose him? Then it's not about the issue, is it? That's the type of mindless opposition we see on Jimmy's blog that we have all been so critical of. And if we do that too, then won't we become just like him? Hate filled and mindless. Then where is the change?