A new concern was raised at UPSI on MCF (Money Comes First)

We left for Manila directly after UPSI and so I decided to sit on the new revelations till I had more time to think about what was "revealed".

It is during tournaments that parents, especially those who have National Juniors as children, will sit down and compare notes on their latest dealings with MCF. So some of this sharing is old news but there were some new accusations levied during UPSI.

One parent with National Juniors as children said that MCF is the acronym for "money comes first". So I laughed at his creativity and asked him what he meant? According to him, it seems certain parents pay "contributions" to certain trainers inside MCF to ensure that their children always qualify no matter what the selection criteria was. This is new to me but somehow I wasn't shocked by this statement.

Another parent present who also has a National Junior child added this in a separate conversation but also at the same event, UPSI. This man may have even more credibility as far as MCF is concerned, (although I have known the first parent a long time and know him to be a man of integrity), since he is also ex MCF. What he said was that certain players are already pre-selected and they will find ways and means to distort the criteria so that who they want will get selected. And lets not even talk about match fixing.

I think this is quite apparent. See here. So actually we know all this or at least we are no longer shocked by these actions. So really there is no incentive to train hard and be good at chess for chess's sake if things remain the same.

However I continue to develop FGM although I realise that strong players who are not in their camp or if the allegation is true, do not pay "contributions" are sidelined, simply because chess can teach you the skills that you can use later in life. And especially in a globalised world. So that is why I still do it.

But something else the first parent said raised my antenna and got me concerned. He said that there is a University that has stopped recognising chess achievements for their co-curricular considerations for scholarship. Now this has deep implications. Apparently news has reached MOE that any tom dick or harry can play for Malaysia and so representation of the Country in chess is a farce and is not recognised as a proper basis for scholarship unlike other sports.

Since the first parent is from MOE, I put some weightage to his statement and decided to post this so that somebody in MCF can investigate to help the parents who have invested a lot of money developing their children's chess so that they will not have invested in vain since the certs may not mean anything if this is true and the situation worsens.

Development should come first. We may be becoming a laughing stock and the parents that have contributed to this by facilitating the back doors have to also take responsibility for this if the allegations are true.

Is there nobody left in MCF that takes office for the love of chess? What happened to all that talk and promises of change during the last AGM and directly after?

Isn't it the final straw when our players are not even recognised by a University anymore because they now know that many did not get there on merit? If we don't stop the rot, what will happen if more and more Universities take the same stand?

So come on MCF, it should be development comes first not money comes first. At least not money made this way. I hope MCF will investigate and allay our concerns over these new allegations. Over to you MCF.