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Tuesday December 21, 2004

Footballer who jilted bride misses training

BY EMBUN MAJID

ALOR STAR: Hasmawi Hassan, the Kedah footballer who did not attend his own wedding reception on Friday, was also absent from training yesterday.

He was supposed to join his team at the Darulaman Stadium here at 8pm.

Reporters were there waiting for Hasmawi, hoping to find out why he had left his bride-to-be Norlida Abdul Rahman in the lurch at her home in Felda Ulu Dengar, Kluang.

Norlida's family was all prepared to host their akad nikah and kenduri with about 1,000 guests attending.

Hours earlier, Hasmawi sent Norlida an SMS asking to cancel the wedding reception.

A Kedah football team member said the entire squad had already planned to go to Kluang for the wedding but one of them received an SMS from Hasmawi saying he had some problems and that they should not go.

Kedah assistant coach Radhi Mat Din said at the stadium that Hasmawi was on leave until the end of the month.

“I do not know of his whereabouts and he has not called me.”

Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Syed Razak Syed Zain, who is the Kedah Football Association president, said the association could not take action against Hasmawi as it was a personal matter.

“(But) the way Hasmawi went about it was not right. If he truly did not want to get married, he should have met the bride’s family and explained,” he said.

For Norlida, a nurse, the last few days had been a nightmare, reports Rizal Abdullah.

“I am still in a daze. I just can’t bring myself to believe that this has happened.

Malu sangat (very embarrassing). Why is this happening to me?” she said yesterday.

“What hurts most is that Hasmawi’s family did not even send a representative to explain what had happened.

“The least they could have done was to send someone to discuss the matter with my family,” she said.

“I have become the talk of the town and community. I feel so sorry for my family, relatives and friends.

“Thankfully, they have been very supportive but it will be some time before I get over this,” she added.

Asked if she would still marry Hasmawi if he apologised and changed his mind, Norlida said:

“No. I have had enough of what he has done to me and my family. It has left a black mark on us for the rest of our lives.”

Norlida said she had been dating Hasmawi since they met in 2001.

She was then a trainee nurse in Bukit Mertajam and he was playing for Penang and staying behind her hostel.

They got engaged in July last year.

“He was a perfect gentleman. When I was training as a nurse, he would fetch me for lunch every Saturday and Sunday if he was not away for matches.”

She said he showed no signs that he wanted to back out of the marriage.

But she had sensed something was wrong when she last met Hasmawi and his family at a hotel in Seri Serdang hours before Kedah’s Malaysia Cup final against Perlis at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Dec 4.

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