Country’s first woman Malay doctor turns 90

By NURBAITI HAMDAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Dr Salma Ismail just could not believe the fuss over her turning 90.

“I have newspaper people talking to me! Other people celebrate their birthdays too. I only follow suit,” said, Dr Salma, who is the country’s first Malay woman doctor.

Asked how she felt about turning 90, Dr Salma remarked with a smile: “(Well), I am deaf.”

However, a partial hearing disability and age did not seem to make her any less sharp-witted.

She commented that perhaps she should make kari bunga (flower curry) the next day as her house has been filled with congratulatory flower bouquets by well-wishers.

In 1949, Dr Salma created history as the first Malay woman doctor in the country. She took 13 years to finish her studies as it was disrupted by World World II. Among her juniors in medical school were former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali.

“I remember running away out of fear because the Japanese soldiers were cruel, vile men. They would chop your head off, no questions asked,” she recalled.

Dr Salma persevered after the war until she graduated from the King Edward VII College Of Medicine in Singapore.

“I still wanted to become a doctor, so why should I stop? I was a Kedah government-sponsored student,” she said when met at her home in Jalan Damai here on Friday.

Dr Salma also defied conventions when she got married to her college sweetheart, the late Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Ibrahim at the age of 32 in 1950 - something unusual for a Malay woman at that time.

Asked whether society looked at her differently because of that, she replied: “Not necessarily.

“It (marriage and children) all comes naturally. There will come the time for people to get married. Some people choose not to get married and follow their career,” said the mother of four children.

Two of her children, Datuk Dr Ridzwan and Dr Normi, followed her footsteps by becoming doctors.

When asked if she had any advice for those keen to take up medicine, she said she had none, as for her, advice never works.

“(But I will say that) it should be what they want, not what their parents want. That is the whole point,” she said.