Advances in Research

Malaysia is a country that since its independence has endeavoured to practice democratic governance. In line with this, it seeks to ensure that the Malaysian government is representative of the will of the people. To achieve this, there must be in place numerous mechanisms to ensure accountability and transparency while also ensuring that it has an ‘ear to the ground’ so to speak. The ruling UMNO coalition government has come under increasing public criticism for its failure to observe these fundamental features of a progressive democracy. Such public scepticism is perhaps best manifested in the National Front (BN)’s relatively poor performance in past elections. This development expedited reforms calling for effective leadership to guide such reforms. It is to this end that this paper is committed, namely to analysing the important role played by the Sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato Sri Najib Tun Abdul Razak towards outlining a clear vision of national development since taking office on 3 April 2009. For this, YAB Dato Sri Najib appears to have opted to pursue a transformational agenda while aptly adopting transformational leadership to ensure the cooperation of all citizens in Malaysia towards a common goal.