Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Jordan & Malaysia

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STAT	Jordan	Malaysia	HISTORY
Head of state	King Abdullah II	Tuanku Abdul Halim
Head of state > Profile	<p>King Abdullah II, Jordan&#039;s monarch since 1999, has extensive powers: he appoints governments, approves legislation and is able to dissolve parliament. </p><p>Over the past few years, he has been facing growing demands for political reform, and following the popular uprising in Tunisia which led to the flight of the president in January 2011, King Abdullah dismissed his government and appointed the first in a series of prime ministers to oversee the introduction of political change. </p> <p>Previously he had backed a 10-year programme for political, social and economic reform and supported a plan for elected local councils. Conservative legislators were apprehensive about the proposals. </p> <p>Balancing diplomatic interests with domestic demands has been tricky for King Abdullah. The country&#039;s peace agreement with Israel and its close ties with the US are unpopular with many Jordanians. </p> <p>In the wake of the November 2005 suicide bombings in Amman, the king declared that security and stability were top priorities and called for a strategy to deal with the &quot;changed circumstances&quot;. </p> <p>Abdullah is the eldest son of the late King Hussein and his British-born second wife, Toni. The couple divorced in 1972. Born in 1962 and educated in Britain and the US, he was named as crown prince shortly after his birth. The king transferred the title to his own brother, Hassan, in 1965, only to return it to Abdullah in 1999. </p> <p>He is married to a Palestinian - an asset since most Jordanians are of Palestinian origin - and enjoys car racing, water sports and collecting antique weapons. He is a career soldier and once led Jordan&#039;s special forces. </p>	<p>Tuanku Abdul Halim was appointed the 14th paramount ruler, Malaysia&#039;s head of state, in December 2011. Having already held the post from 1970 to 1975, he is the first Malaysian king to be enthroned twice. He is also the oldest to be elected to the post at 83.</p> <p>The post of paramount ruler is rotated every five years among the sultans of the nine Malay kingdoms.</p>
Prime minister	Abdullah Ensour	Najib Abdul Razak
Prime minister > Profile	<p>Reformist Abdullah Ensour was sworn in as head of a new government on 30 March, only months after offering his resignation following parliamentary elections in January 2013.</p> <p>Mr Ensour, a former minister and vocal advocate of democratic reform, was re-nominated by the king following extensive consultation with parliament. Previously, MPs played no role in the process.</p> <p>However, the main opposition Islamic Action Front said the exercise was largely cosmetic.</p> <p>Observers said the new cabinet&#039;s main task will be to cut government spending in order to deal with Jordan&#039;s growing budget deficit and financial crisis.</p> <p>In a first cost-cutting effort, the cabinet was shrunk to its smallest size in four decades.</p> <p>Pro-government candidates swept to victory in the January poll, which was billed as key to pushing forward King Abdullah&#039;s reform programme but was boycotted by the Islamic Action Front.</p> <p>Mr Ensour said the election was a stepping stone on the path of &quot;more vigorous, serious&quot; reforms. </p> <p>The Islamic Action Front and other smaller parties boycotted the poll to protest an election law they saw as biased in favour of the king&#039;s supporters. </p> <p>King Abdullah surprised observers when he first appointed Mr Ensour as prime minister in October 2012, shortly after dissolving parliament.</p> <p>Mr Ensour, an independent MP, had good connections both to the Royal Court and to opposition groups, including the Islamic Action Front and the powerful trade unions. </p>	<p>Najib Razak assumed the post of prime minister following the resignation of his predecessor in 2009, and was sworn in for a second term after his coalition won elections in May 2013. </p> <p>The long-governing National Front coalition won the 2013 national elections with a weakened majority to extend its unbroken, 56-year rule, fending off the strongest opposition it had ever faced.</p> <p>The opposition alleged the biggest electoral fraud in the country&#039;s history. </p> <p>The son of the country&#039;s second prime minister and nephew of the third, Mr Najib is regarded by many Malaysians as political blue blood and seems to have been destined for the premiership from an early age.</p> <p>A British-trained economist, he first entered parliament at the age of 23 - becoming the youngest MP in Malaysian history - and quickly rose to prominence.</p> <p>He held numerous cabinet posts - including finance and defence - before becoming prime minister. </p> <p>He took over the premiership at a turbulent time, and faces the enormous challenge of steering the country through the global financial crisis, which has hit the economy hard. </p> <p>Mr Najib pledged radical reforms and a more transparent government. He said that one of his priorities would be to close a widening ethnic and religious divide, after Malaysia&#039;s ethnic minorities shifted towards the opposition in large numbers in the 2008 polls, fearing their rights were being eroded. </p> <p>But his rise to power was marked by a government crackdown on the resurgent opposition, with allegations that strong-arm tactics were being used to stifle political dissent. </p> <p>In July 2011, a demonstration in the capital Kuala Lumpur calling for electoral reform was forcibly broken up by the police. </p> <p>However, the following month Mr Najib announced that a cross-party parliamentary committee would look into ways of making the voting process more democratic.</p>
Prime minister > Summary	Abdullah Ensour has vowed to speed up economic and political reform	Najib Abdul Razak

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