Southeast Asian Images

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 behavior, the opinions of public intellectuals, and the dianoses 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 committed to seems to be a necessary condition for strengthening the society and civilizing the state. Will it happen?

Niels Mulder, an independent anthropologist, has been actively engaged with life in Java, Thailand, and the Philippines for more than thirty years and is the author of a number of books.

Preface
Introduction

Section I. National self-image
1. The Thai democratic way of life
2. Philippine image of the nation
3. Civics a la Indonesia

Section II. Change
4. Change and problems in Thailand
5. Changing Filipino values
6. Indonesia: The call for reform
7. Thinking women's emancipation

Section III. The present
8. Society diagnosed
9. Religious revival
10. Civic malaise

Section IV. The public discourse
11. The social imagination
12. Towards civil society?

Bibliographic note
References
Index