By Kamarul Aznam Kamaruzaman
Abu Abdillah Nu’man ibn Basyir r.a said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “That which is Halal is clear and that which is Haram is clear, and between the two of them are ambiguous (mutashabihat) matters about which many people do not know.
“Thus he who avoids ambiguous matters clears himself in regard to his religion and his honour, but he who falls into ambiguous matters (eventually) falls into that which is Haram, like the shepherd who pastures around a sanctuary, all but grazing therein.
“Truly every king has a sanctuary and truly Allah’s sanctuary is His prohibitions. Truly in the body there is a morsel of flesh, which, if it be whole, all the body is whole, and which, if it is diseased, all of (the body) is diseased. Truly, it is the heart.” –Hadist Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim.
The recent Golden Churn butter controversy was finally laid to rest yesterday after JAKIM issued a statement confirming that there were indeed elements of porcine in the said butter and it is now deemed Haram for use by all Muslims in Malaysia.
The statement said that this consensus was reached after lengthy consultations with various agencies including the Malaysian Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry, the Malaysian Chemistry Department, the Food Safety and Quality Division of the Ministry of Health Malaysia, as well as the Sarawak and Johor State Religious Departments.
Although yesterday’s media statement (see attached) was a welcomed confirmation by all, it came a little too late. The controversy had caused innumerable damage, both to the famed layered cake industry of Sarawak, as well as to the confidence of local Muslim consumers in JAKIM as the country’s sole Halal authority.
It is not just a symbol that signifies compliance, it is so much more than that.
The episode invariably exposes several crucial weaknesses regarding Malaysia’s Halal certification system. For starters, there exist no clear lines of communication between itself and the respective state religious authorities. Granted that the Sultans would never relinquish their control over something as lucrative as Halal certification, but JAKIM should at least work harder in managing the communications aspects of it.
How difficult is it to issue a gag order to all religious bodies if the stakes were as high as RM6.5 million a year, which was how much the Sarawak layered cake industry was estimated to be worth before the controversy? Because of this oversight, the local cake producers who are mostly Muslim women entrepreneurs, had to endure with the public’s perception that they are producing “kek babi” or pig’s cake, a stigma which would surely last for a lifetime.
The controversy also exposes another apparent weakness within the transparency of Halal management in Malaysia. Official lab testing reports were almost never produced to support its judgment of Halal or Haram, even to the manufacturers concerned.
How the states were able to use the lab services other than that of Chemistry Department also deserves some clarifications. Had the tests been conducted by the just one government agency and its state divisions, surely a contradiction such as this would never have occurred.
While we have resigned to the fact that these agencies were established to protect the consumer’s right to Halal food, doubts about JAKIM’s credibility as the country’s sole Halal authority is starting to take root. ‘If it can’t even manage its own house, how can it become a global Halal reference centre?’ was an insider’s apt observation.
This particular insider, a representative from the industry, also opines that a large part of the problem was the lack of leadership continuity in JAKIM, as in the rest of the Malaysian government institution. He pointed that the last JAKIM’s Halal Hub director only managed to warm his seats for just six months, give or take, before being promoted to a different portfolio. It was the same for his predecessor, who only managed to steer the division for slightly longer than a year. Her predecessor meanwhile managed to stay slightly longer, but only because he was close to retirement age, he pointed.
If Malaysia was truly serious in becoming a global Halal hub, weaknesses such as these must be addressed quickly and effectively, not just for the benefit of the consumers but also the nation as a whole. Lapses in Halal judgment and communication to the public affect not just the domestic industry but also that of Malaysia’s international trade and its bilateral relations with producing countries.
Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir in an earlier interview with HalalSME.com, aptly described Halal as being the perfect ‘blue ocean strategy’ for the local SMEs. He said Malaysia’s SME sector must utilise Halal certification as a ticket to penetrate the lucrative global Muslim market, and the government “would do what it takes” to realise this goal for benefit of the country’s overall economy.
Indeed, the government sector cannot continue to allow segments within it to sabotage itself and throw away everything that has been achieved thus far in positioning Malaysia on the global Halal map. We have endured far too many experiences both painful and satisfying to be where we are today, and if JAKIM or any state religious authorities think they can hold the industry and the consumers at ransom yet again, they better think twice.
Truly, Halal is not something that can be taken lightly, as it represents a Divine judgement for all mankind. For its practitioners and stakeholders, the pre-requisite is a good heart and clear sincere intentions. Without which, the entire body is diseased, doomed for self-dishonour. We should therefore strive to mend what is flawed and set our intentions right and work not for our own selves but that for the Ummah at large, as part of well-functioning whole body. May we be rightly guided in our daily struggles.
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