We need to end the dramas so we can find the space to think about how we can move forward again.

Have you ever wondered why we are not only stuck but moving backwards relative to our neighbours? Dramas are fear based. Consider this. Why are some people bringing up the issue of Mok to attack Peter? We have struggled hard as a community to bring in selection. And now certain people are using the pervasive intense dislike of Peter to find support to reverse our tiny step forward. Why this terrible need to return to the back doors?

Fear. Fear that their players are not good enough to work through the problems on how to win within the rules and on the board. Fear that they have no solutions and are out of date. Fear that our neighbours are better than we are. Fear of hard work because we are now so far behind it will take massive efforts to move forward again. And so they need dramas to deflect from facing the real issues.

Why do you think Peter and Jimmy only talk about their ratings and some ancient achievement as "evidence" that they know something about chess? Fear. Fear that they cannot compete in today's world. Fear that they are becoming irrelevant in Malaysian chess. So they need to build up an illusion. They need to find ways and means to knock out their nearest competitors which are the older Juniors, young adults and heck even the older ones that have been playing in open tournaments. And so they come up with "select selection". Irrelevancies like the Malaysian "Masters".

And so the people who want to get rid of Peter to bring Mok back in is just as fear ridden aren't they? Peter and Jimmy is fear ridden; Mok is unable to compete to win his place in even a "select selection" for whatever reasons. And so the infection spreads. And we have never ending fear based dramas.

The funny thing is that chess as a game demonstrates perhaps more clearly than any other vehicle that fear destroys your thinking. You need to sit down, look closely at the position, engage your thinking faculties and not knee jerk fear responses to find the way forward.

If more of us can do that and we can move away from our fear based dramas then our chess will improve. And we can also be world beaters. First things first. Get rid of the back doors. Close that door and keep it shut. Stop finding ways to get back to square one. That will simply mean we have learnt nothing from our nearly 3 years of struggle to improve, to change for the better.

Lets go out and take our place in the world again. Lets go out with our heads held high again. Forget about those people who need to hide their heads in the sand. They are irrelevant and only a distraction if we engage them. They will disappear in time. They already are starting to.