A day before Dr Mahathir Mohamad's arrival in Sarawak, the state's minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah told Sawakians that it was during the former prime minister's stewardship of 22 years that the state's rights were eroded.

However, Mahathir still received a rockstar welcome with around 10,000 people showing up at a ceramah in Kuching where Pakatan Harapan unveiled its "New Deal, New Hope" manifesto for Sarawak.

Addressing the crowd doing his almost hour-long speech, Mahathir took aim at the Petroleum Development Act 1974, which was seen as the point where East Malaysia gave up its petroleum rights to the federal government in exchange for a meagre five percent royalty payment.

"In 1974, when the Petroleum Development Act was passed, I was not the prime minister.

"Supposedly, it was said that I was responsible but that is not right. The records are in the hansard.

"Who was the prime minister at that time? It was Abdul Razak Hussein, not me," he told the crowd.

Mahathir claimed that this continued during the era of Abdul Razak's son, Najib, in the form of the Territorial Sea Act 2012.

"When was the law made? It was done in 2012. The prime minister in 2012 was Najib," he said...