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.