Saat Mahathir meluahkan cinta kepada Hasmah

Seventy-one years after Dr Mahathir Mohamad confessed his love for Dr Hasmah Ali through a game of Scrabble, their family is rekindling that moment once again this year. The ambiance has changed, but the message remains the same. In Kuala Lumpur, a Scrabble board sits atop a table at Merdeka Grill, with letter tiles arranged to form the words "I LOVE YOU" for 71 years.

Mahathir gazes at the letter tiles with a slight smirk, surrounded by a dinner platter, cakes, city lights, and family. It's a nostalgic recreation, but not just an ordinary family game. Designed by their grandchildren, it revisits something Dr Mahathir did for Dr Hasmah's mother, Hasmah Mohamad Ali, in 1955. The original version was far simpler.

Their children remember 23 April as the date when their parents' love story began, a date they celebrate every year, even sometimes more than their anniversaries. However, there was a problem in 1955. Mahathir was too eager to express his feelings, so he resorted to Scrabble instead. This method allowed the board game to convey the message.

Now, almost a century later, it almost sounds like a relic of the past, which might be why it's so captivating. Seven decades later, Mokhzani's children decided to revive that moment for their father and mother at Merdeka Grill, Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur within Merdeka 118 Tower. Pictures capture Mahathir at the table, his fingers close to the letter tiles, while another picture shows the message fully: I LOVE YOU.

The setting is more luxurious than the original atmosphere, but Mokhzani emphasizes that the essence remains the same. His father was still too eager to speak the words out loud. "Perhaps that's why we're there," he says. "The way people used to be." Those little details are extraordinary to surface after Hasmah's passing, as they reveal a personal side to a relationship that has been widely known and told countless times.

They met in 1947 when they were medical students at King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore. Mahathir remembered how he competed with five other young men to help Hasmah carry her books. When Hasmah later faced difficulties in an exam, she offered to tutor her for free. Eventually, she also told Hasmah that she loved her.

Several decades later, Hasmah remembered that it was the most romantic thing she had ever done. They married in 1956 and spent the next 70 years building a family, pursuing medical careers, and navigating public scrutiny. They also argued. Hasmah once demanded that after their heated exchanges, they would only go out to eat. Mahathir later described assertiveness as a key aspect of a lasting marriage: accepting that the person you love may change.

Perhaps the Scrabble story explains another thing about them. While they lived their lives in the public eye for decades, the most meaningful seconds in their lives were theirs alone.