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recent article by a regular commentator in Malaysia's Sun newspaper called for the resignation of a minister over a scandal involving government attempts to eradicate the pervasive problem of forged driving licenses.' True, the affair he referred to happened more than three years ago and the minister in question had since retired anyway, but the implications of his call and the general thrust of the piece-that ministers should be held accountable for their actions-were, in the context of Malaysia's shackled media industry, bordering on the revolutionary. This paper addresses the subject of media control in Malaysia under the Barisan National {BN-National Front) regime, the coalition of ethnicallybased political parties that has ruled the country since independence. As Hughes notes in her introduction to this issue, the dominant liberal discourse on democratization often views the mass media in fairly functionalist terms as an agent of democratization, particularly at times of regime transition or crisis. Existing studies ofthe media industry in Malaysia, however, have long since concluded that any incipient democratizing tendency within the media has long since been subverted by extensive formal and informal control, thus contributing to the entrenchment ofthe regime.-Rather than reexamine the Malaysian media industry from the liberal perspective, this paper instead takes the opposite approach, assuming as its "null hypothesis" the position of the ma.ss media as an agent of the BN's political project, and then looking for sites of weakness and tension that might indicate the limits of this control. Drawing on interviews with media practitioners, as well as extensive textual analysis of print and online media ' R. Nadeswaran, "Take the rap and resign graciously," TheSun, 4 August 2004, arailable online at in/artirle,cfm?id-4814>, site last accessed 10 March 2005. 2 Although now somewhat dated, the paradigmatic examination of the politics of the media in

Severe horizontal inequalities (HIs), or inequalities among groups, are undesirable in themselves and can lead to violent conflict. It is therefore important to reduce them, wherever possible. This paper reviews a range of policies which could contribute to reducing HIs in the political, socioeconomic and cultural status dimensions. Relevant policies depend on the context and hence a first requirement is a careful assessment of the nature and causes of HIs in the particular society. Among many considerations to be taken into account, two are especially important. First, if possible, policies should be adopted which reduce rather than increase the salience of identities. Hence, the paper considers a range of indirect policies that are likely to reduce HIs because they are designed to help groups in which deprived groups are numerous, rather than direct policies targeted at the groups themselves. Secondly, policies which correct HIs can be provocative, leading to mobilisation (sometimes violent) by previously privileged groups, so that caution is needed in design and implementation. Examples of success in introducing such policies and sustaining peace-such as in Malaysia and Northern Ireland-show that policies can be effective without provoking a violent reaction. The successful socioeconomic cases are shown to have tackled both social and economic inequalities, while success in reducing political HIs requires political inclusivity at many levels of the political system. The paper argues that considerations of HI are frequently ignored in policy-making, and need to become an important part of policy discussions in multicultural societies.

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