The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my)
Country’s first Malay woman doctor turns 90, 20 December 2008
by NURBAITI HAMDAN
KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Dr Salma Ismail just cannot believe the fuss over her turning 90.
“I have newspaper people talking to me. Other people celebrate their birthdays too,” said Dr Salma, the country’s first Malay woman doctor.
When asked how she felt about turning 90, Dr Salma remarked with a smile: “(Well), I am deaf.”
Partial hearing disability and age have not made 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 bouquets from 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 the Japanese Occupation.“I remember running away out of fear because the Japanese soldiers were cruel, vile men. They would chop off your head, 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 stop? I was selected as a Kedah government-sponsored student,” she said when met at her home yesterday.
Dr Salma also defied convention then when she married late, to her college sweetheart, the late Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Ibrahim and gave birth when she was 32.
Asked whether society looked at her differently because of that, she replied: “Not necessarily.”
“It (marriage and children) all comes naturally. There will come a time for people to get married.
“Some people chose not to get married and follow their career,” said the mother of four and grandmother of seven.
Two of her children, Datuk Dr Ridzwan and Dr Normi, followed in her footsteps by becoming doctors.
However, Dr Salma has no advice for the young generation who are keen to take up medicine because 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.
Dr Salma had a surprise birthday party thrown for her last night by her children.
Among those who attended were former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, who were her juniors in medical school.
© 1995-2008 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)
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