My version of the history of Perak Chess from 2009.

There has been some interest in the history of Perak Chess on facebook. I will be the first to admit that many things are murky and it took me a while to unearth even as much as I know. But since there are accusations levied against me on facebook, I think I will give a short account of my version here. Actually much of this is already known outside of Perak but many in Perak are still in the dark.

The first accusation levied against me is that I was sacked from the committee in 2009. Yes, that is true but the reasons given are not. Actually if you read this blog back to it's starting point then a lot is explained there. But here is the gist. When I came into Perak chess, I did a couple of things that pissed a lot of people in the committee off. I tried to put in a selection criteria. Apart from the committee members there was one parent in particular who objected very strongly. That person was Eddy Fong.

The other thing that happened was that I was called up by Dato Tan Chin Nam who wanted me to do things for him in Perak. So he asked me to handle the KLK sponsorship. Of course the older committee members could not understand why me and not them. This combined with the fact that I also introduced DKLS as a potential sponsor was too much of a threat. That meeting between DKLS and PICA was also attended by Dato Tan.

So that is the brief background. Do let me add a little more here. At the meeting in DKLS, I informed the President of PICA that I wanted to resign as a committee member to set up a chess academy. However for reasons best known to the President and committee, they decided to sack me. The excuse they used was for the presentation of accounts from Syuen. I agreed to that but I also asked for the simultaneous presentation of accounts of 2 earlier events done by PICA.

The meeting was set on a date when everyone knew that I would be in KL. I asked for a change of date but that was refused. The meeting was held when I was in KL and I was sacked. So of course there were many constitutional issues. First of which was if the committee can sack an elected official. And then if the sacking can be on grounds of not being able to attend one meeting. I had perfect attendance till then. And PICA is an NGO.

So it seems the sacking was done for 2 possible reasons. One was possibly just spite and the second was that the sacking would facilitate for somebody to do the KLK event since it can be conveniently explained to Dato Tan that I was sacked. Anyway that issue is still hanging till today. I asked for the right to present my case at the next AGM as stated in the constitution but that too was denied me. The next AGM was held in secret.

The other accusation levied at me is that I used "free tickets" and charged players. This attack was first coordinated by Jimmy Liew's site via the use of anonymous blogs. That is of course also not true as we were sponsored by Air Asia to train our national players and I hired a GM to do that. All the evidence were presented on my blog including the letter from Air Asia that stated this. I even published the accounts. And FGM is a registered company and not an NGO as they try to spin. The worst thing about this accusation is that it is Eddy Fong's children that are saying this on FB. And so they hide behind children again. Why doesn't Eddy himself come out and say this?

I think it is hard for anyone to know the truth now since there will be many versions. So why don't we just look at the evidence. Who's children has benefited from sponsorships from Perak over these years? I think you may find that it is from the same people who objected to clear selection criteria. So we just need to pick up the clues or in the due course of time, the truth will also be revealed.

I think their greatest fears are when the parents come together and share their experiences. I think they will also be very afraid when more and more Perakians travel out. Could that be why I only see Fadzil, Yit San and Yit Ho in most of the tournaments outside of Perak? And now I hear that even Fadzil has moved to greener pastures. Why don't they encourage more players to go out and participate like how all the other States do? Could it be because they can then still continue with their nonsense here if everything is bottled up? But how long do they want to keep Perak in the dark?

But there is some good that came out of this. My failed attempt at implementing selection criteria in Perak was then subsequently adopted by MCF in 2010 for NAG. Not all is mine but I shared a lot with the new Secretary of MCF after the aborted attempt in Perak.

The other "good" thing is that the entire chess community is now seeing new innovations to the idea of playing tag team in individual tournaments. The latest being a telephone call to make sure that all 3 children makes the team. So that is a new one to deny someone else their rightful place. Wonders never cease. And I thought I had seen quite a lot in 10 years.