IN MALAYSIA, AS in other developing countries of Asia, local government reform has been necessitated by new challenges to local units of government and, subsequently, their changing role in national developmental and political processes.' Rapid urbanization, which is a by-product of the Malaysian government's strategy for intercommunal redistribution and restructuring society, has substantially increased the demands for local services and an improved standard of living.2 This has made it imperative that powers and resources of local governments be increased and their administrative capability be strengthened to enable them to perform new functions. As compared to the colonial period when local government in Malaysia was looked upon as an agency primarily associated with tasks such as garbage collection and street cleaning, it is now viewed as a catalyst for development and, as the late Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak pointed out,