Halal stickers cause controversy in Indonesia

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 (IslamOnline.net) - Halal stickers, a feature on food items sold in supermarkets in many countries around the world indicating that such foods are permitted for consumption by Muslims should be made compulsory in Indonesia experts on the issue said to IOL Sunday, July 20.

Reacting to a comment by Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Yusuf Kalla who said Thursday July 17, that such stickers reading “Halal” (permitted in Islam) on cans, tins, paper bags or plastic bags were not compulsory in Indonesia.

Kalla also added that it was left to the voluntary decision by local manufacturers to put the stickers on their products, reported Antara news agency.

Such stickers are a must in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore as well as Thailand to indicate whether the food items are consumable for the huge Muslim majority in the South East Asian (SEA) region.

“Indonesia is the largest Muslim country on earth and yet it never had such stickers on items sold in supermarkets,” said Isa Selamat, an Indonesian writer and a psychologist currently living in Malaysia.

He insisted that such stickers would help the populations of Indonesia understand which products are consumable and which are not, since a majority of food producers locally are non-Muslims.

A controversy over the necessity to print such stickers on food produced in Indonesia to indicate whether the product was halal or not rose two weeks ago when members of the Muslim Ulama decided it was important to do so.

Indonesia’s food manufacturing industry is dominated by Chinese and foreigners of non-Muslim faith and Muslims are growing weary of the fact that for years, they have been eating processed food without knowing it is halal or not.

A consumer association in Riau Islands has altogether urged the Indonesian authorities to take the matter seriously and to make it compulsory for manufacturers to print halal stickers on their products, like it is done in Malaysia and Brunei.

“The important thing is that the government ensures the products with halal stickers are really halal and avoid situations like those that occurred during the regime of Abdurrahman Wahid with the ‘ajinomoto’ food enhancer,” said C. Rancak an advertiser and a consumer of such foods in Riau.

Halal stickers are also a prominent feature in shops in Africa, Europe and even in China where Muslims are too weary about what they consume.

Kalla said the authorities did not want to put a heavier burden on the national food and beverage industries by forcing them to print such stickers. Nevertheless, local observers say the government should instead put the emphasis on the protection of the interest of the consumers rather than being too careful about the interests of manufacturers.

“The manufacturers has a moral responsibility towards the huge populations of Muslims and to make sure that some “ugly” situations do not repeat themselves here,” warned Abdul Shyukur, a vendor of “Indo Mee” a brand of local noodles that was the center of a controversy some years ago.

A row over “ajinomoto”, an additive in foods served in restaurants across the SEA region, raised the anger of Muslims in Indonesia in 2001.

The product, an enhancer that makes food taste livelier, was found to contain non-halal elements. The Indonesian government, under the presidency of Abdulrahman Wahid decided that the enhancer was halal despite the discovery of the suspicious element.

In the 1970’s, a member of the Indonesian Ulema discovered that noodles and soap produced in Indonesia had “pork” contents and that Muslims were the largest buyers of these products.

Intense campaigning against the manufacturers and street demonstrations led to a change of the ingredients of the products that were declared halal afterwards.

“The public in general in Indonesia would not understand why the halal sticker was necessary, being used to believe that most of the local productions were halal,” said Isa Selamat.

Hence he believes the authorities have a duty to launch a campaign in that sense. Likewise he added, foreign markets may also support Indonesian products opening huge potentials for halal based foods from the country.

He added that the row over the noodles and soap in the 1970’s had triggered consciousness among Muslim intellectuals that they should be on their guard before they consume anything that is manufactured or processed locally.

He also said that it was rather necessary to inculcate the idea that products with a halal sticker were safe for Muslims to consume, “It will be made necessary and obligatory in the long run to have the stickers on halal food,” Isa believed.

The government's decision to that effect could actually help industries increase their sales because they would be able to win Muslim consumers' confidence, the Indonesian minister earlier said.
 
The institution that has the right to issue "halal" certificates for the food and beverage products is the Indonesian Council of Ulamas (MUI), while "halal" stickers are from the government.

The MUI had insisted that such stickers were necessary but went beyond by urging local manufacturers not to compromise the health of the Muslims in Indonesia by allowing non-halal contents to be mixed with foods and beverages consumed by Muslims.

It was not possible to contact any manufacturers in Indonesia, willing to give their opinion on the issue. However, Muslim industries in Riau and Jakarta had said they would make it a priority to use the stickers, C. Rancak told IOL.