Why I Chose to blog at First Light

Well let me introduce myself. I am Paramjothy Kandiah the owner and editor of this First Light Blog. Wondering why I chose the name First Light for my blog? When translated, my name Paramjothy in Sanskrit is ‘First Light’. Param means ‘first’ and Jothy means ‘light’. Now you see why I chose First Light as the name for my Blog.

Going back to memory lane, I was born on 3rd August 1954 in Batu Gajah, Perak. My father is
Mr. Kandiah and my mother is Mrs. Nasambal Kandiah. I have one brother and two sisters. They are Paramanathan, Parameswari & Parasathy. As my father who was then an employee in a plantation, I spent my childhood days in the estates. We moved to Teluk Intan when I was 10 years old, as my father was transferred to Ulu Bernam Estate, and there was no proper school to attend.

I had my primary education from 1961 to 1966 at St.Anthony's Primary School at Teluk Intan. My secondary education was at St.Anthony's Secondary School from 1967 to 1971. I did my form six at Vanto Academy Petaling Jaya from 1972 to 1973. After finishing my form six, I wanted to work, so I got into doing various odd jobs. I worked as a part time real estate clerk and also as a pollination supervisor prior to my departure to the USA to do a degree program. The delay in going to college was due to finance. I did a degree at Washington State University at Pullman, Washington from 1977 to 1981. My major was in Economics and my minor was in Political Science. People always ask me why political science and my reply was that in this current world every economic decision has a political connection. CORRECT.CORRECT,CORRECT.

On returning home in 1981, I got my first job with a chocolate manufacturing company called Upali Malaysia. They were the manufacturers of the famous KANDOS chocolate. I was with them for 17 years before I was head hunted to join a Saudi based chocolate company called Gandour Malaysia. I was retrenched in 2000 and worked with my brother who owned a Pub & Restoran. I left the Pub & Restoran business to take on a new venture in the casting industries. I formed a new company and started trading in materials related to casting and foundries.Till to date I am in this business. I hope to pass this business, on to my son if he shows genuine interest in casting and foundries related fields.

I married my wife Rahjam Nadarajah and we have two children, Ruthiran and Mahaletchumi. My son is in the final year majoring in Industrial Engineering while my daughter is in her second year at University Putra Malaysia doing a course in Bio Chemistry.

The big question of why I decided to blog. The first reason is because I want to put my thoughts in writing and share it with others. Sometimes we tend to keep our ideas and opinion to ourselves and this is of no use unless we share it with others. I would also like to know what others think of the various subject matters. By this we can gauge the wave length of society on various issues. Ever since independence, Malaysia has gone through many stages of development but our style of governance has not changed. Our ruling party for the last 50 years has not fully understood the real issues and addressed them in the proper way. We have been lucky that this country has many natural resources and we were able to pull through even with many mistakes made by the leaders. But now we are faced with many crises and unless we are able to change our mind set we will fare badly in the years ahead. This general dissatisfaction of the masses was seen in the last GE. Blogger have now become the main sources of information as we find that our newspapers,television and radio are under the influence of the ruling government. In most countries the media was seen to present the truth to the public but in our country this is not true. The media do not give equal opportunity to every individual or organization to present themselves to the masses. So the blog is the only place you can air your views and opinion.

The last 5 years saw a rise in the number of blogs that has come out due to the general feeling of un-happiness at what is happening in this country. We see a lot of racist statements made by prominent members of society. This is very disturbing as we are a multi racial country. The government of the last 50 years did very little to bridge the gap between the various races. They followed a divide and rule policy in all their ventures. Our country’s political system till today is based on race and religion. We have to move away from this or else we will not be able to adapt to the global system of cross culture. We cannot talk about one race or one religion. We must talk as one people, BANGSA MALAYSIA. Until such time, our country will only see less progress as there are many who are unhappy with the existing system.

The bloggers have now become the 5th media and see how they are now bringing issues related to the current government out to the public. The government still does not want to see the wisdom and do the necessary changes to adapt themselves to the requirement of the Raykat. I do want want to write about specific issues in this article but will address various issues as and when I write on them. Due to the various shortfalls in our ruling parties I have started to blog to let my opinion be known and to gauge what are the general consensus of the public in various issues.

I must also state that one of the people who really made an impact on me to blog was Raja Petra. In his blog MALAYSIA TODAY, he writes on current and past issues which were not known to the general public as they could not find out about it in the main stream media such as newspapers, television, radio etc. Whatever he wrote, whether true or false was left to the reader to decide but he gave that information which was not available before or were suppressed from the public. The ruling government in the last GE took the bloggers too lightly but realised their impact when they lost the 2/3 majority in Parliament together with losing five States to the Opposition. They have still not changed nor would they adapt to the rising thought of a corruption free with social justice to all Malaysians. If they don’t, then they will loose more in the next GE. Some of these blogs, have now got the ruling government on its toes as the public are more aware of their wrong doings.

Father's Day 2008

First of all I want to take this opportunity to wish all Father's a very Happy Father's day. Please have a great time with your family & friends. As for me I started my father's day on Saturday 14th June by having breakfast with my wife and daughter while my son was sleeping and refused to come as he just finished watching EURO 2008. I could not take my dog Alfie as he would not be allowed at the Chinese coffee shop.


We father's let us take some time to appreciate what our fathers have done for us and to remember them on this fathers day. Our mother's must all be appreciated as it took both of them to mould us to what we are today for good or bad.

As for my father he was born on 14th January 1914 in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. He only completed standard 3. My father was a very naughty person when he was young and my grandfather used to punish him by not giving him food when ever he was up to his tricks. My fathers name is Kandiah Subramaniam.

My father ran away from home and landed in Singapore at the age of 19. His parents did not know that he left Ceylon (now known as Sri lanka). On arriving at Singapore one of his relative told him that there are jobs in Tapah and Bidor under PWD department for road laying. My father told me when he landed in Singapore he bought a tin of Players Navy Cut cigarettes and his smoked a lot. So you see where I learned my smoking habits as it was in the genes. My father while at Tapah was informed by a relative that there was a job in Teluk Anson in a plantation. My father went to Teluk Anson (now known as Teluk Intan) and took up the job as a rat catcher in the plantation. From a rat catcher he final retired as the Field Superintendent with United Plantation after 46 years of service.

My father married my mother and had 6 children and I being the second last. My eldest sister and youngest brother passed away young. Towards the last part of my fathers life he had renal failure and he died on 25th May 1987 and my mother been very close to my father died 10 month later on 12th march 1988.

I have given you a short brief history of my father and now I would like to highlight the character and contribution my father had on my life.

The first wisdom that my father gave me was to be Honest and Sincere in what we do in life. When I returned home back from my education in the USA and after been unemployed for 10 month, I finally got a job with Upali Malaysia. I was employed as a management trainee and finally placed with the purchasing department. My father advise to me was that I should not take a cent as this would eventually lead me into many problems and trouble. I followed his advise with upmost honestly and sincerity and served 17 good years with the company. My fathers advise till today runs in my mind and I as a father will impart this wisdom to my son and daughter.

The second thing I learned from my father was not to underestimate any person whether rich or poor. We should learn to treat people equal and most of all as fellow beings. We should be kind to children and animals. The notion of self interest should be removed from our hearts and we should strive for the well being of society. Of course charity starts at home and we should always do charity as this will bring good karma towards our next birth. As Gandhi said we are all children of God and we must treat all people good. Do to others as you want other to do to you.

One important thing I learnt from my father was to speak the truth at all time. Sometime it is difficult but we must try to keep on this path most of the time. Living within your means was a point my father stressed always. He said cut your dress according to the amount of cloth you have. If you make your shirt too big with a small piece of cloth, then the end result will be your shirt will tear. Basically don't spend more than what you earn.

The greatest contribution I received from my father was a college education. I graduated from Washing State University with a degree majoring in Economics and a minor in Political Science. This has been the most important asset in my life as it cannot be stolen from me. All other assets can leave you or be taken away from you except your education. He wanted me to get a good education as he was not able to.

With your education and experience you can survive in any part of the world.

My father got me married or else I would have remained a bachelor. I am married for the last 26 years to Rahjam Nadarajah. He paid for my marriage as I was broke.

I guess I will end here as I can go on writing more on my father but it will be done in book which I intend to publish some time later.

Once again HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all the fathers.

8th March 2008 General Elections in Malaysia

When Malaya got its independence in 31st August 1957, we were proud to have moved away from the British colonial rule. We rejoiced that we are now to take charge of the destiny of this country. The result of the BN rule in the last 50 years was seen in 8th March 2008 GE results. The masses had enough and wanted a change for the better of this country as our government was is no way better than the British rulers. But one think we must appreciate is that the British left us with a system.

The people of Malaysia have realised that it is time we have to move away from our old methods of governing this country. We have to introduce good laws as well as accountability for the ruling government. This will be a new era in this country as the people will decide on who will run this country as was seen in the last GE. Six states have fallen to the opposition.

We have to move away from racism and religious intolerance. We have to see all Malaysians as Malaysians instead of Malay, Chinese, Indians & Others. Anybody who holds citizenship is considered a Malaysian. This view of seeing Malaysian as Malay,Chinese & Indians have divided this country and it is an obstacle for the development of Malaysia. We have to ban political parties that are one race related. The whole world is going global and there is no place for one race politics.

Once we have this sorted out we will move very high in the world map as we are blessed with many natural resources. We have also to do a lot of clean up in our Judiciary as they are the keeper's of the law of the land.