Prime Minister Najib Razak was today told to learn how to lead an austere life, like his late father and former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein did.

"I hope the prime minister will learn and adopt some of the very good things about Tun Razak, one of which was basically to live an austere life...

"I hope he will revisit his father's contribution to the country, be it in foreign policy or (the way he) had helped the poor," PKR lawmaker Wong Chen said.

Wong was responding to the special commemorative seminar on Razak being held today in conjunction with his 40th death anniversary.

"I think this country will be better if Najib is more like his father," said the Kelana Jaya parliamentarian, adding that it was good to have the commemoration event to honour Razak's leadership.

Najib and his father are different in their leadership, he added.

Thus, Wong urged Najib to relook into the legacy left by his father and to learn to be a down-to-earth leader.

Razak, who was known as the 'Father of Unity', passed away 40 years ago, from leukaemia.

He introduced the Rukunegara in 1970 and National Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971 as part of national reconcilation initiatives following the race riots of May 13, 1969.