“It is not right and it is not justice that political parties can win power just by cheating the people.

“The rakyat should not be shortchanged and simply accept whatever excuses that the PH government makes up over the next five years,” he said in a Facebook post.

He was apparently referring to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s defence of PH’s decision to name former judge Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof as the new Dewan Rakyat speaker.

PH had promised in its election manifesto that the speaker would be chosen from among the MPs.

Questioned about this outside Parliament today, Mahathir said: “Please remember that the manifesto is not a Bible. It’s a guide. Sometimes we can do things, sometimes we find that we cannot. So we need to be practical.”

Mahathir added that the public, too, would want someone who was non-partisan to chair the Dewan Rakyat sessions.

Najib said: “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.

“Perhaps we were too careful to only promise whatever we can deliver? Would I have done differently? No.”

Manifesto not a bible, says Dr M in defence of speaker’s appointment