Elected Mayor for Kuala Lumpur: Democracy, Power, and the Limits of Good Intentions Few governance ideas sound as intuitively appealing as the call for an elected mayor for Kuala Lumpur. It promises democracy, accountability, transparency, and a clear line of responsibility. In a city as complex, wealthy, and influential as Kuala Lumpur, the absence of an elected city leader feels, to many, like an anachronism. Yet good intentions are not the same as good outcomes. Before embracing the idea wholesale, it is worth examining both the promise and the pitfalls—and more importantly, whether the political actors championing this reform are equipped to deliver the deep structural changes it would require.