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

Tun Dr Hasmah Mohd Ali is seen during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s public meet and greet at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya during his 100th birthday celebration on July 10, 2025. — Picture by Raymond Manuel

By Milad Hassandarvish

First Published: Monday, 28 Sep 2026 11:43 AM MYT

Last Modified: Monday, 28 Sep 2026 11:56 AM MYT

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 to her chagrin, 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.

Trailblazer

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.

Enduring legacy

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.