ABSTRACT
Famously glossed as a ‘plural society’, Malaysia remains complex, in terms not just of ethnicity, but also class, religion, gender, sexuality, and other dimensions. Known equally, too, for its developmentalist aspirations (as discussed in the last section), which have required both ambitious educational and social service expansion and a degree of media and other openness, and for a restrictive human rights regime, Malaysia struggles with endemic tensions among competing goals and along varied axes, as inequalities and unmet benchmarks put prescriptions and policies to the test.
