This unusual study discloses the public discourse among educated, urban
Southeast Asians in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, and
considers how these people conceive of their society and its problems
and process. It examines basic patterns of thought, the interpretation
of observed behavious, the opinions of public intellectuals, and the
diagnosis of novelists. Together these provide the basis for evaluating
whether or not an activist civil society can develop. Because of the
muddled situation prevailing in the countries under scrutiny, the
emergence of a public commited to change seems to be a necessary
condition for stengthening the society and cilizing the state.