The AGM is just another chess game.

Over the last few days there has been a lot of anger expressed over the conduct of the AGM. And I have heard from both sides of the divide. So how should we view this? This is my personal view. Lets read this again first. Here.

We are one people, yes? And we went into the AGM and proved that we are the vast majority of dissatisfied stakeholders of the chess community from the vote count, did we not? But the challenge was beaten down and the arbiters have been called in to rule on the outcome. And so it is now left for them to give their ruling or not. The game is over.

If we are to do a proper postmortem we may find this lesson to learn. It is better to fix the rules of the game before we play and not after the game has been lost. This is chess and we are chess people yes? And real chess people can learn. That is why we all love this beautiful game. Chess is about competitor analysis, about forward thinking, about decision making. Postmortems are good but it does not win games. Winning mindsets wins games.

So as in a proper chess game, we should now extend our hands and congratulate the opponent after the "defeat" should we not? You are the better player for this round and for this tournament. Yes?

That was for the players in the AGM. What about for the rest of us stakeholders? Did we gain anything? What was the desired outcome for the rest of us? Did we not get to highlight the corruption of the last MCF committee? Did we not show that our children are being publicly attacked? Did we not show that they were using the authority and power of their positions in MCF to attack competition from all other organisers, coaches and trainers? Did we not show that Jimmy, Peter and Greg were working in tandem to fix selection for the senior squad? Did we not show that our Juniors are being sabotaged to make way for their chosen one? Etc.etc. etc.

Did we not show that Chess had been controlled by some very toxic people that have no respect for all our contributions and sacrifices?

So while the arbiters are deciding, what should we do? Well, I am trying to get as much information as possible into the inner workings of the new committee. From what I have learned so far, they have some good "new" people and they have retained some of the toxic people in what seems to be ostensibly less harmful positions. So on the surface it does look like we have been listened to.

However I still see some problems in the new paradigm shift. Very briefly, it seems that the new structure is very corporate in nature and MCF is an NGO and not a business. That may prove to be a future problem. So in the chess spirit of Gen Una Sumus, I will now focus on the debate towards our future as a chess community in what I hope will be a constructive manner although I must warn you that I will still call a spade a spade. But the new players are big boys who have been through the trenches of corporate warfare. So their skins should be thicker.

Note: I am not abandoning the players that have lost in the AGM but that game is now over and we must now respect the rulings of the arbiter if and when it comes out.

So for FGM at least, I will now focus on making sure that the gains we have so painfully struggled for as the Malaysian chess community on the whole, is further strengthened and not eroded over time. I learnt this lesson the hard way from PICA. Winning the AGM is not the end. For the chess players in the winning new committee this is just the opening gambit. The rest of the chess game will continue within the committee.

So all my best to the new committee of MCF. I hope you will be able to take the criticism and suggestions that will come from this blog from time to time.

Congratulations. You are now all public figures and you will need to learn to function as one.

Thank you readers for your time spent here on my blog. I also want to thank all those people who have encouraged me and fed me with information so that I was able to participate meaningfully in this very long and drawn out struggle to bring improvements to the Malaysian chess scene. We now know conclusively that we are the vast majority within the chess community, do we not? So lets not go back to whispering in dark corners anymore.