KUCHING, Dec 3 — The state government has yet to receive any official letter of the federal government’s rejection of the state’s RM1 billion offer to fix dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
“So I don’t know whether our offer to the federal government to repair and upgrade dilapidated schools in Sarawak has been rejected,” Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg told reporters.
“If the offer was rejected, then there should be an official letter, but there is none,” Abang Johari told reporters after opening a two-week Malaysian Journalism Workshop organised by the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) here.
The offer from the state government was made last year, but the then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak replied that the federal government had the money to fix 1,020 dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
Najib, who was also then the Finance Minister, had announced a RM1 billion allocation as a special fund to Sarawak to fix dilapidated schools for this year and next year.
The offer of RM1 billion was repeated July this year after it emerged that the allocation was insufficient, but there has been no response from the present Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad disclosed that the offer was a loan from the state government.
Instead, the prime minister had suggested that the state government use the money to pay loans owed to the federal government.
Abang Johari admitted that the state government had borrowed money from the federal government over certain projects.
“We have the federal loans, which we will settle in instalments on time,” he said, adding that he does not know how much the state owes the federal government.
On Dr Mahathir’s hope that the state government should not be too demanding with regards to oil and gas royalty, Abang Johari said it was not a matter of demand, but a question of state rights over its oil and gas resources.
“If you are a house-owner and you want to erect a fence around it, that is within your right. So, the demand over oil and gas resources is just our right,” he said, adding the issue on royalty can be negotiated between the state and federal governments.
