ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the internationalist character of the revolutionary careers of three women who joined the Communist Party of Malaya in the 1950s and 1960s. Fighting against British colonialism and neo-imperialism, their experiences and aspirations transcended the post-independence borders of Malaysia and Singapore. The meanings they prescribe to their struggles are internationalist. Their resilience as politically conscious, self-critical and empowered women, as well as their compromises, sacrifices, pains and regrets as warriors for Third World emancipation tell a radically different history of Southeast Asia that is absent in mainstream narratives. By recounting the lives of three communist women, who came from different social backgrounds and different parts of the Malayan Peninsula, the statist, McCarthyistic version of history is subverted.
