Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a noted public health advocate and wife of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, died at 100. A funeral will be held Monday evening in Putrajaya and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said she will receive full state honours. The couple met in medical school, celebrated 70 years of marriage, and raised seven children. Siti Hasmah was Kedah’s first female medical officer and championed maternal and family health causes.
Siti Hasmah, Wife of Malaysia’s Longest-Serving PM Mahathir, Dies at 100; State Funeral Planned
Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad sits with his wife Siti Hasmah Mohammad Ali during the launching of Perkasa, a Malay rights organisation, in Kuala Lumpur March 27, 2010. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad (MALAYSIA - Tags: POLITICS)
Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, the wife of Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, and a respected public health advocate, died on Monday at the age of 100, Mahathir’s office said.
A funeral is scheduled for Monday evening and Siti Hasmah will be buried at a Muslim cemetery in the federal administrative capital, Putrajaya, the office said, without providing further details. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim expressed condolences and announced that she will be accorded a funeral with full state honours.
“The nation will continue to remember her motherly figure and appreciate her contributions and services,” Anwar said in a statement.
Her husband, Mahathir, 101, who is widely credited with modernising Malaysia, survives her. Mahathir served two separate terms as prime minister that together spanned more than two decades. During his first tenure from 1981 to 2003, he presided over rapid industrial expansion that helped transform Malaysia into one of Southeast Asia’s economic tigers.
Mahathir came out of retirement to return as prime minister in 2018 — becoming the country’s oldest premier — after helping remove then-leader Najib Razak amid investigations into the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal. His second spell in office, however, lasted less than two years and ended in 2020 when his governing coalition collapsed amid political infighting.
Life, Family and Public Service
The couple met while studying medicine in Singapore in the late 1940s. They celebrated 70 years of marriage in August and raised seven children, among them businessman Mokhzani Mahathir, social activist Marina Mahathir and politician Mukhriz Mahathir.
Siti Hasmah was a prominent figure in her own right: warm, unassuming and known for her good humour, qualities that often contrasted with her husband’s blunt public style. She became the first woman appointed as a medical officer in Mahathir’s home state of Kedah and used her platform as a political spouse to champion maternal and child health, family planning and other social causes.
Mahathir once described Siti Hasmah as the backbone of his success and praised her determination to earn a university degree — a rarity for ethnic Malay women of her generation. “That, I think, reflects her strength of character,” he told CNN in 2018.
Reporting for this item was attributed to Rozanna Latiff and edited by David Stanway.
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