Update on the coming interview with Encik Muammar of MCF.

I was hoping to complete the interview before I leave for Malaysian Open on Friday since I do not like to be distracted during a tournament. And last night I thought that could be accomplished as I worked with Encik Muammar till past midnight. However Encik Muammar raised some very challenging questions towards the end of a very long interview and I felt I needed to pause and verify the new information given. After checking with various sources a new picture is starting to emerge.

I can also see from the responses of my normal sources this morning that there is some confusion as to why FGM is conducting this interview so I think I better clarify further.

Directly after the AGM, I did not involve myself in the politics of MCF any further. I felt that my contribution towards getting a challenge at the AGM was all the time I was prepared to give and returned to focus on developing Mark's chess. However after seeing some encouraging signs coming from the new Council I decided that this may be a good time to reactivate my Chess Academy which I closed down after having a lot of problems with sabotage seemingly coming from within the previous MCF. So I have begun looking for new sponsors as well as talking to potential investors for the venture.

I only decided to take an active look again into what is going on in the politics when I heard about the "banning" of Kedah. If things are going to turn bad again where my sponsors and FGM's players can be publicly attacked with lies and innuendos without avenues for redress like before then I would need to abort this venture as it would not be fair to my new and old sponsors as well as my potential investors.

So let me declare again the position of FGM so there will be no misunderstanding. FGM is for the orderly development of MCF towards a rule abiding governing body so that all members of the chess community including FGM will have a level playing field. Towards that aim FGM will work with any party who shares the same values. And if the EGM is the way to go after careful consideration of all pertinent facts then FGM will also support that.

However I also do not want to inadvertantly end up as a pawn in any hidden power game that seeks to subvert that agenda. It is my philosophy that we always try to make a big problem smaller and a small problem go away and not the other way around.

So I will need to verify all new information and re-evaluate my position given the new facts in order to present a fair and balanced picture so that in the end we can decide on which is the right side of the issues and not be manipulated into bringing us back into the dark ages again.

This means that although I am non partisan it does not mean I am impartial. I am on the side of improvement and not regression.

Having said that I will still endeavour to bring the interview out in time if it is humanly possible.

All my best for Malaysian chess. This time Malaysia truly boleh!