She got a job at the Universiti Malaya library after graduating in 1978, but had to find another way to get to work as she had to move out of the residential college.
“I went for the interview in my wheelchair, and they asked me how I was going to come to work,” she told FMT. “I had seen the movie Coming Home, where this guy was driving a car with hand controls. So I told them I was going to get a car, modify it and drive it to work.”
While such cars were a reality in America, there was nothing remotely close available for her at home, where buses were yet to be fitted with wheelchair accessibility.
Bathma wrote to a host of car companies hoping somebody could “MacGyver” something that would allow her to drive. Finally, an engineer named Paul David from Tan Chong Motors took up her cause, and developed a system allowing her to drive using levers she could operate with her hands.
Her humble Datsun 120Y became the first of its kind in the country. “Then I had to have it approved by the Road Transport Department. An engineer came and we drove around and he saw me using hand controls and the signals, how I manoeuvred roundabouts, emergency stops, all of that.
“The following week when I called him up, he said ‘when you drive with your hands, they’ll get tired and you’ll be a danger to the people on the road’. “I said ‘sir, you are a person with a very closed mind, in other parts of the world people are already driving these modified cars’.”
Annoyed but undeterred, she managed to get a meeting with the deputy transport minister then, Goh Cheng Teik, and explained her need to have the device approved.
“He took a look at it, and after a couple of weeks it was approved, but there was a clause that I could only drive in KL and PJ, and could only go up to 60km/h.”
She argued that the limits were inane: there was little difference between driving in KL and anywhere else in the country, or the world.
And while capping her speed was supposed to improve road safety, not allowing her to exceed 60km/h would make her a nuisance on the highway.
The restrictions were finally removed in 1983, but the lengthy wait opened her eyes to the challenges she would continue to face.
“The perception of people towards something which is new is something that is very difficult to change, especially among people who are in power. Sometimes you’ll see officers go overseas and say that so many things are happening there, but they don’t realise that the same thing can be implemented in our own country.”
To this day, she uses the same setup she did all those years ago. While newer versions have come out and reached Malaysia that allow easy swapping between vehicles, she’s never felt the need to change.
“It might be old fashioned, but I’m very comfortable with it.”
Bathma remained committed to the cause of the disabled, and became president of the Malaysian disabled women’s association. In November 2013, she was appointed a senator, representing disabled people, and went on to serve two three-year terms in the Dewan Negara.