He said, as far as the federal government is concerned, Sarawak is part of Malaysia and the state’s development is Putrajaya’s responsibility.

“We would, of course, prefer a government that is friendly, that is of the same party as the federal (Pakatan Harapan) government.

“But whether it is a different or same government, federal projects in Sarawak will go on,” he said after attending a closed-door briefing on the progress of federal development projects in Sarawak here today.

Asked on the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS)-led state government’s offer of RM1 billion to be used to rebuild dilapidated schools in the state, he said it was a loan.

“I think they (state government) wanted to lend it to us, but the state government also owes us money.

“We would just prefer if they just pay the money they owe us. They have a lot of money and the budget for Sarawak is the biggest in Malaysia, RM11 billion (next year),” he said.

Mahathir also hoped the Sarawak government would not be too demanding with regards to oil royalty to the state.

Sarawak has demanded that the oil royalty of 5% from the federal government be increased to 20% as part of the state’s special rights as enshrined under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

On the rebuilding and upgrading of 116 dilapidated schools involving an allocation of RM443.5 million statewide this year, he said it took slightly longer to get the building materials.

So far, 77 of such schools have been completed and 39 are still in various phases of implementation using the industrialised building system (IBS).