Remembering the legacy of Dr Hasmah, ‘Ibu Negara’ Malaysia

Tun Dr Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a pioneering Malay woman physician and the wife of Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, passed away at the age of 100.

Dr Hasmah was a trailblazer in maternal and child healthcare, significantly lowering infant mortality rates during her career with the government medical service.

She held numerous leadership roles, including serving as the inaugural chancellor of Multimedia University and leading humanitarian efforts, while also becoming a beloved cultural icon.

Her passing has elicited condolences from across Malaysia's political and royal circles.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Tun Dr Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a pioneering Malay woman physician and the lifelong companion of Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, died this morning at 9.20am. She was 100.

Affectionately know as Dr Siti Hasmah, she is survived by Dr Mahathir, 101, whom she married on Aug 5, 1956, and their seven children.

Just last month, the couple were formally recognized by Asean Records and Asia Records as the oldest living former head of government and spouse in the region, marking the first such partnership where both partners attained the age of 100.

Born in Klang, Selangor, on July 12, 1926, she was the sixth of ten children in an illustrious family. Her brothers included former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tun Ismail Mohamed Ali, former armed forces chief Gen Tun Mohamed Hashim Mohd Ali, and former Selangor menteri besar Datuk Ahmad Razali Mohd Ali. Her sister, Tan Sri Dr Saleha Mohd Ali, was also a prominent medical practitioner.

Dr Hasmah entered the history books as one of the first Malay women to enrol at the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore, where she first met Dr Mahathir in 1947 before graduating in 1955.

She subsequently joined the government medical service, dedicating her early career to rural Kedah, where she spearheaded maternal health, basic hygiene, nationwide immunisation, and public health education drives.

Her career was marked by groundbreaking milestones: she was appointed the first woman medical officer in the Maternal and Child Health Department in 1965, and in 1974 became Kedah's first woman State Maternal and Child Health Officer.

After earning a diploma in public health from the University of Michigan in 1966, she served as a lecturer in the University of Malaya’s Faculty of Dentistry. Official health records credit her grassroots rural maternal initiatives in Kedah with dramatically reducing infant mortality rates from 75 deaths per 1,000 live births down to just six.

Decades of public service and diplomacy

Following Dr Mahathir’s elevation to the deputy prime minister’s post in 1976 and subsequent appointment as prime minister, Dr Hasmah served as the spouse of the prime minister from 1981 to 2003, and again from 2018 to 2020. Over those decades, Malaysians affectionately came to know her as “Ibu Negara”.

She leveraged her national platform to champion maternal healthcare, family planning, anti-narcotics advocacy, and rural adult literacy. She led the Malaysian delegation to the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, chaired the First Ladies Dialogue at the 2003 Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit, and served as the inaugural chancellor of Multimedia University from 1997 to 2012.

Her public service encompassed leadership roles across civic bodies, including the Malaysian Girl Guides Association, the Malaysian Medical Association Foundation, and serving as patron of the Badminton Association of Malaysia.

In March 2000, she led an independent five-day humanitarian mission to Iraq to assess the human toll of international sanctions on women and children, personally delivering medical supplies to pediatric hospitals and orphanages. During the mission, she held a private audience with Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, a meeting kept confidential until it took place, even from Dr Mahathir.

In her later years, Dr Hasmah flourished as a cultural icon in her own right. She resumed playing the violin after a 70-year hiatus, famously auctioning instruments to raise funds for charitable causes. Embracing lifelong learning, she mastered conversational French in her 70s and took up the traditional Chinese erhu in her 80s.

In 2016, she published her autobiography, My Name is Hasmah , where she fondly described Dr Mahathir as her “hero”. In 2024, she publicly requested that people discontinue addressing her as "Siti", a prefix added socially during the 1970s, choosing to be known simply by her birth name, Hasmah. Demonstrating characteristic openness, she also spoke publicly about her 2019 breast cancer treatment to encourage early clinical screening among women nationwide.

Condolences have poured in from across the political and royal spectrum following the announcement of her passing, led by messages of sympathy from His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Remains of Dr Siti Hasmah taken from IJN to family residence in Seri Kembangan

Thunderstorms, heavy rain expected in Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan this afternoon

PM Anwar mourns Dr Siti Hasmah’s passing, calls it a great national loss

马来族女医生先驱、马来西亚任期最长的首相马哈蒂尔·穆罕默德的妻子敦·哈斯玛·穆罕默德·阿里逝世，享年100岁。

哈斯玛博士是妇幼保健领域的先驱，在她为政府医疗服务部门工作的职业生涯中，显著降低了婴儿死亡率。

她曾担任多个领导职务，包括担任多媒体大学的首任校长和领导人道主义工作，同时也成为一位深受爱戴的文化偶像。

她的离世引起了马来西亚政界和王室各界的哀悼。

吉隆坡，9月28日讯——马来西亚先驱女医生、马来西亚任期最长的首相敦马哈蒂尔·穆罕默德的终身伴侣敦哈斯玛·穆罕默德·阿里博士于今晨9点20分逝世，享年100岁。

她被亲切地称为西蒂·哈斯玛博士，她的丈夫马哈蒂尔博士（101岁）和他们的七个孩子都健在，他们于1956年8月5日结婚。

就在上个月，这对夫妇被东盟纪录和亚洲纪录正式认定为该地区在世最年长的前政府首脑及其配偶，这是该地区首例双方都达到 100 岁的此类合作关系。

1926年7月12日出生于雪兰莪州巴生市的一个显赫家庭，在十个孩子中排行第六。她的兄弟包括前马来西亚国家银行行长敦·依斯迈·穆罕默德·阿里、前武装部队总司令敦·穆罕默德·哈希姆·莫哈末·阿里和前雪兰莪州大臣拿督·艾哈迈德·拉扎里·莫哈末·阿里。她的妹妹丹斯里萨利哈莫哈末阿里博士也是一位著名的医生。

哈斯玛博士是首批进入新加坡爱德华七世国王医学院学习的马来族女性之一，她于 1947 年首次见到马哈蒂尔博士，并于 1955 年毕业，因此名垂青史。

随后她加入了政府医疗服务部门，职业生涯早期致力于吉打州农村地区，在那里她率先开展了孕产妇健康、基本卫生、全国免疫接种和公共卫生教育活动。

她的职业生涯以突破性的里程碑为标志：1965 年，她被任命为妇幼保健部门的第一位女医务官；1974 年，她成为吉打州第一位女妇幼保健官员。

1966年从密歇根大学获得公共卫生文凭后，她曾在马来亚大学牙医学院担任讲师。官方卫生记录显示，她在吉打州开展的基层农村孕产妇保健项目，使婴儿死亡率从每千名活产婴儿75例死亡大幅下降至仅6例。

数十年的公共服务和外交经历

1976年马哈蒂尔博士升任副总理，随后被任命为总理，哈斯玛博士从1981年至2003年以及2018年至2020年担任总理夫人。几十年来，马来西亚人民亲切地称她为“国家夫人”。

她利用自己的国家级平台，积极倡导孕产妇保健、计划生育、禁毒宣传和农村成人扫盲。她率领马来西亚代表团参加了1995年在北京举行的联合国第四次世界妇女大会，主持了2003年伊斯兰合作组织（OIC）首脑会议的第一夫人对话，并于1997年至2012年担任多媒体大学的首任校长。

她的公共服务涵盖了多个公民团体的领导职务，包括马来西亚女童军协会、马来西亚医学协会基金会，以及担任马来西亚羽毛球协会的赞助人。

2000年3月，她率领一支独立的五天人道主义援助团前往伊拉克，评估国际制裁对妇女儿童造成的人道主义灾难，并亲自向儿科医院和孤儿院运送医疗物资。访问期间，她与伊拉克总统萨达姆·侯赛因举行了一次私人会晤，这次会晤一直保密，甚至连马哈蒂尔医生都毫不知情。

晚年，哈斯玛博士凭借自身魅力成为一位文化偶像。她中断小提琴演奏70年后重拾琴艺，并以拍卖乐器为慈善事业筹款而闻名。她终身学习，70多岁时掌握了法语会话，80多岁时又开始学习中国传统乐器二胡。

2016年，她出版了自传《我的名字叫哈斯玛》，书中她深情地称马哈蒂尔医生为她的“英雄”。2024年，她公开请求人们停止称呼她为“茜蒂”（Siti），这个前缀是上世纪70年代人们在她名字前加上的，她选择只用自己的本名哈斯玛。她一贯坦诚，也曾公开谈论自己2019年接受乳腺癌治疗的经历，以鼓励全国女性尽早进行临床筛查。

在她去世的消息公布后，政界和王室各界人士纷纷表示哀悼，其中马来西亚国王苏丹易卜拉欣陛下和首相安华·易卜拉欣也发来了慰问信息。

西蒂哈斯玛博士的遗体从 IJN 运至史里肯邦安的家庭住所

今天下午，沙捞越、沙巴和纳闽预计将有雷暴和强降雨。

安华总理对西蒂·哈斯玛博士的逝世表示哀悼，称这是国家的一大损失。