Nevertheless, the middle class has not always been a driver of change in the region. Scholars of Southeast Asia have pondered over why it seemed unusually quiescent and supportive of authoritarian regimes (Robison & Goodman, 1996; Rodan, 1997). After all, it was growing under Suharto’s New Order in Indonesia, and had been large in Malaysia and Singapore, with little corresponding political change. “Performance legitimacy” matters and can sometimes cushion the effects of middle-class preferences for political participation. Sometimes the middle class is willing to forego some political freedoms when authoritarian regimes perform well, and their living standards rise. Singapore and to a lesser extent Malaysia have been the main examples of this trade-off, where the middle class enjoyed rapidly rising wealth and economic opportunities under tightly controlled political regimes. The benefits of comfort outweighed for some time those of freedom to express themselves politically. Furthermore, when the middle class is dependent on the state for its wealth, it is even more likely to accept compromise. Singapore’s government consistently provided a host of housing and other social benefits that could be manipulated to foster greater political support. In Malaysia’s case, the regime exploited its vast patronage machine through UMNO to nurture Malay support. At the same time, ethnic divisions created a different kind of middle class. For decades, Malaysian Chinese constituted its largest part. They were not likely to demand political change after the 1969 riots. Similarly, much of the middle class during the early day of the Suharto regime was ethnic Chinese, who in Indonesia constituted only a very small percentage of the population. Having been frequently victimized, they also refrained from politics. With the growth of the middle class in both countries, these factors have changed. Indonesia certainly saw a new middle class play a central role in the establishment of democratic regime after 1998, while Malaysia’s has increased pressures for reform.