Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali

Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, Malaysia's longest serving spouse of a prime minister and one of the country's first Malay women doctors, died on 28 September 2026 at the age of 100. She was born Hasmah binti Mohamad Ali on 12 July 1926 in Kampung Jawa, Klang, Selangor, and became one of Malaysia's earliest Malay women doctors and went on to have a long career in medicine, public health and social work.

She studied at King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore, graduating in 1955, and went on to break several barriers for women in Malaysian public service. She joined the Health Ministry and served as a medical officer in several parts of the country, including Kedah, with much of her work focused on public health, maternal and child healthcare, and in 1965 she became the first woman appointed as a medical officer in the Maternal and Child Health Department, followed in 1974 by her appointment as the first woman State Maternal and Child Health Officer. Her decades of work on family planning, women's welfare and the campaign against drug abuse made her a familiar and respected public figure well beyond her role as a political spouse.

Siti Hasmah married Mahathir Mohamad in 1956, and the couple went on to have seven children, including social activist and writer Marina Mahathir and former Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir. She became the spouse of the prime minister of Malaysia when her husband first took office in 1981, a role she held until his retirement in 2003, and she resumed the role when he returned to the premiership from 2018 to 2020. Her decades in Malaysia's public life mattered because she showed that the position could carry its own independent purpose, using her platform to champion maternal health, family planning, women's welfare and social causes rather than serving as a purely ceremonial figure. She was recognised for this legacy when she became the first wife of a Malaysian prime minister to receive the Seri Setia Mahkota Malaysia award, which carries the title Tun. Away from politics and medicine, she was an avid sportswoman who played competitive badminton until the age of 75, and she was widely regarded as a maternal figure to the country's national badminton players through her patronage of the Badminton Association of Malaysia and the Malaysian Wheelchair Tennis Association.

She died at the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur on the morning of Monday 28 September 2026, just weeks after celebrating her 100th birthday in July. Her death was confirmed by her son, Tan Sri Mokhzani Mahathir, when contacted by Bernama. As of this report, the specific cause of death had not been made public. She is survived by her husband, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and their seven children.

Tributes began arriving within hours of the news. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim described her passing as a great loss to society and the nation, and confirmed he would attend her funeral. Malaysia's King, Sultan Ibrahim, and Queen Raja Zarith Sofiah also expressed their condolences to the family, praying that she be blessed and placed among the righteous. Malaysians across generations, from former colleagues in medicine to admirers of her decades of quiet public service, have described her passing as the end of an era in the country's public life.