Do Malaysia have excessive amount civil servants?

The seventh Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced on May 17 that he will axed some 17,000 civil servants who are political appointees to reduce government spending. Do we really have excessive number of civil servants?

Actually, we do. The ratio for civil servant to the entire population in Malaysia is 1:24.22. To make it more convincing, we compare Malaysia with highly populated country, United States of America, and a nation with low population, Singapore.