It was a rather unconventional career choice for the time, and it raised a few eyebrows in her village in Kedah. All the same, Fatimah was thrilled at being selected for training as the first batch of women constables in the country.
Apart from a family member who was also in the force, her role models were seven other women, including Emily Koshy and Ng Leng Sim, the country’s first women inspectors.
“My older brother was a police officer, too,” Fatimah, the youngest of three siblings, told FMT Lifestyle, adding that even the sight of uniformed officers marching would stir something in her.
Maybe it was meant to be. After all, she was born on March 25 – Police Day – believed to be when the country’s modern police force was formed in 1807.
Homesickness aside, she loved everything about her seven months of training: classroom work, learning to march, and getting acquainted with firearms.
“When I fired the pistol, the recoil lifted my hand up. It was heavy!” she recalled of her first experience.
Her graduation, alongside 53 other women in her batch, was made all the more historic when Tunku Abdul Rahman himself attended the ceremony.
As a full-fledged policewoman, Fatimah’s first posting to Penang saw her patrolling the grounds of a school and guarding prisoners in hospital. It was during this time that she picked up a few Hokkien words.
“I know a little bit such as ‘lu mia hami?’ (what’s your name?) and ‘lu cho kang hami?’ (what do you work as?)”
And she was still raising eyebrows – civilians who caught sight of the petite young woman in uniform always did a double take. She may have looked slender and fragile, but she was made of tough stuff.
Fatimah recalled one incident when she was ordered to find the severed leg of a trishaw rider who had been involved in an accident. The limb was somewhere in a paddy field, she’d been told, and she dutifully searched for it in the dead of night.
Serving the nation became even more poignant when Merdeka Day celebrations rolled around on Aug 31, 1957.
“I felt proud that we achieved independence, that we were no longer being colonised by others. We could now rule on our own.”
The Merdeka month is also special for Fatimah because it was on Aug 26, 1962 that she married the love of her life, police officer Osman Ngah Ismail, who worked in the same division as she did.
The happy couple were blessed with three daughters, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
Life on the force was unpredictable, she recalled. Some days she worked around the clock, investigating accident reports. But she said her husband’s firm support helped her balance family and career. He passed away in 2009.
Fatimah herself retired in 1992 at the age of 55. For her service, she was awarded the Pingat Pangkuan Negara and Pingat Jasa Pahlawan Negara. Years before, she had been conferred the Queen Elizabeth II General Service Medal.
The opportunity to serve her country before and after Merdeka is something that Fatimah remains proud of.
She received two promotions while in service – first to the rank of corporal, then sergeant. And while in Alor Setar, she was made assistant investigation officer in the traffic division, the first woman in the country to hold the position.
Fatimah believes Malaysians today are blessed, just as she was decades ago, as they can walk their own path to success thanks to the nation’s independence.
“If a person is good at a job, they get an opportunity to be promoted, whether you’re male or female. So work with honesty, don’t work just for the money.
“Be trustworthy in everything you do. And remember that you work for the peace of the nation,” she concluded.