IPOH, July 16 — Pakatan Harapan must honour promises outlined in their manifesto, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today amid the appointment of a non-MP as Dewan Rakyat Speaker.
In a Facebook post today, Najib said it was both his and the opposition’s intention to speak out for the rakyat and demand that PH fulfil their promises.
“It is not right and it is not justice that political parties can win power just by cheating the people,” Najib said.
“The rakyat should not be short-changed and simply accept whatever excuses that the PH government makes up over the next five years.”
Najib did not specify what he was referring to, but is believed to be addressing the appointment of Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof as Dewan Rakyat Speaker.
Ariff is not an elected MP, which appears to contradict a pledge made in the PH manifesto.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted today that Ariff’s appointment as Dewan Rakyat speaker was not in accordance with the manifesto, which stipulated that the speaker should be appointed from among MPs.
“(Yes), but for certain reasons, we cannot adhere to the actual manifesto. Please remember that the manifesto is not the Bible, it is a guidance,” he was quoted as saying.
“Sometimes we can do things, but sometimes we find that we cannot, so we have to be practical-minded,” he said.
Najib however, said that BN had geared its manifesto around promises that they were able to deliver.
With this in mind, the Pekan MP said BN had planned their GE14 manifesto very carefully, revisiting it repeatedly.
“We planned our BN manifesto for GE14 very carefully, did our numbers and we revisited it over many rounds as I had intended to deliver each and every promise,” Najib said.
“Perhaps we were too careful to only promise whatever we can deliver?
“Would I have done differently? No,” he added.
