What has been their role in Southeast Asia? Looking beyond levels of economic development, more directly to the business class and middle class, we can trace why they have sometimes been motors of change but other times not. The case of Thailand in many respects confirms the trend. New business groups, outside of Bangkok, began to enter politics and challenge the narrower grip held by large Bangkok elites and conglomerates. They formed the core of some of the politicians behind parties such as Chart Thai and later Thai Rak Thai. Demonstrations in 1973, 1992 and after 2006 involved a middle class that no longer accepted military-bureaucratic dominance. In Indonesia and the Philippines, the middle class sometimes demonstrated in the streets to trigger political reform. Indonesians demonstrated for days in 1998 and brought down Suharto’s regime. The People Power revolution in 1986 ended Marcos’ authoritarian rule. The Indonesian middle class had also been working within Golkar and established institutions to gradually pressure for reform. There are signs of similar kinds of middle class pressures in Vietnam since Doi Moi, when the regime introduced economic reforms to economic development. In recent years, it has implemented some gradual political reform allowing more policy scrutiny. In Malaysia, where the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) remains dominant, the Malay middle class has been increasingly divided, Thereby feeding the ranks of the rising Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance). Although maybe only an initial sign, pressure for change is rising in some authoritarian regimes with a growing middle class.