There are signs of cracks in the infrastructure of progress made by the government in developing the country and if left unchecked, will ruin all efforts made to make Malaysia a developed nation, the prime minister warned today.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there were already rumours that some civil servants were discontented with the government and were acting unprofessionally in carrying out their duties.

"We must be very careful. Negative thoughts among the civil servants will spread and we will become a society with no confidence," he said.

Mahathir said this when delivering his keynote address at a civil service function at the National Institute of Public Administration (Intan) in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

He said that everyone must help rectify the "first evidence of cracks and collapse", otherwise the downfall will be more rapid than the progress made by the country in the last 43 years.

Simply vanish

"We must be very careful to prevent the decline and fall of the country. If we collapse after just 43 years of independence, we will simply vanish," he added.

He said the civil service has done a good job thus far but there was some evidence of a lax attitude at the moment.

"There are some civil servants who are swayed by personal feelings and affected by emotions. Some act on their own commitments and ideas thinking that the government is corrupt, practises cronyism and is anti-Islam."

He said such attitudes will make the government ineffective, adding that the condition was not too critical but must be addressed.

He advised civil servants to act in a professional manner and carry out their tasks in accordance with the wishes of the government of the day.

"Civil servants must not question the government's political decisions and policies," he stressed.

Mahathir also said that a professional civil service will play an important role in ensuring progress and development to the nation and in achieving Vision 2020.

Use elections, not force

"There must not be racial tension. We must subscribe to moderate politics and adhere to our principles of democracy," said Mahathir.

He added that there need not be riots or use of force to overthrow his government as a new government can be installed through general elections.

However, he warned that when a government changes, there could be instability, uncertainty and a disruption in continuity, resulting in a lack of government administration and development.

"We should not change (the government) for the sake of changing or just because we have the ability to change," he said.

The prime minister said the government was not overconfident and had always paid attention to the needs of the people.

"In foreign countries, opposition leaders are persecuted so that the opposition will be tame. In Malaysia, we don't do that. We have real opposition, sometimes too real ... but we can handle them," he said.

Mahathir said that Malaysia was moving in the right direction towards becoming a developed nation and it was important that the country was not colonised again by Western powers.

Globalism danger

"Globalism is a tool created by the Western powers to dominate and conquer the world. Maybe I am overly suspicious but going by their history, we know that they like to dominate and colonise," he said.

He said that in the name of globalism, Malaysia could be taken over by the Western powers and this would include the management of the banks and finances.

"They will then want us to drop our affirmative actions and we can't assist certain sectors like the Bumiputras. We can't implement our programmes."

He also said that although the per capita income of Malaysia at US$4,000 (RM15,200) per annum was lower than many other countries, the cost of living and the purchasing power of Malaysians were better.

"We want our cost of living to be in tandem with our GDP so that our people can afford to live comfortably," he said.

He jested that if the people wanted a higher currency value, the government would have no qualms in converting the value of the ringgit to that of the Italian lira or Indonesian rupiah, adding that everyone could then "carry a gunny sack" full of money.