Indonesia’s highest authority on Islamic affairs said on Thursday that halal certification, which clears products for consumption by Muslims, could help the country ride out free-trade bumps.
Indonesia has the world’s largest population of Muslims, but halal certificates issued by the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) are not obligatory, including for food products.
MUI executives say that only about 20 percent of products sold in Indonesia are certified as halal by the council.
“It will be a bargaining tool for us on the international stage, as the quality and hygiene of our products often come into question,” Ichwan Syam, the MUI secretary, said at the Vice Presidential Palace. During a meeting with Vice President Boediono, the MUI asked him to preside over the opening of an international halal food and business exhibition to kick off in Jakarta on July 23. Sixteen countries are scheduled to take part in the event.
“With a halal requirement in place, imported food products would have to be either certified or banned. This should be part of the government’s policy to ensure that our people don’t consume unhealthy products or those that are not halal,” Ichwan said.
He added that one of the problems with the current halal certification was that it was still on a voluntarily basis and was restricted only to food products.
“In other countries, the certification includes food, beverages, drugs, cosmetics and other products,” Ichwan said.
“In Malaysia, there is a regulation that belts should not be made from pig skin as they are considered unclean by Muslims. In Indonesia, we don’t even consider whether a leather belt is halal or not.” However, he said there had been some progress in raising public awareness about consuming halal products.
Ichwan also said the certification fee accounted for a small fraction of expenses, but that in order to promote halal certification, mall-based retailers should get the fee waived.
However, he said that much discussion was still needed before halal certification could become mandatory.
“There are different arguments for whether it should be mandatory,” he said. “Some people object because they say Indonesia is technically not an Islamic country. Meanwhile, other people think that it should be mandatory to protect Muslims, who make up the majority here.”
The MUI would need to consult with several other institutions, including food, beverage and drug producers’ trade groups, as well as government agencies such as the Religious Affairs Ministry, the Trade Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry, before mandatory certification can even be considered.Meanwhile, the council is also planning to issue several edicts, including on tattoos, hypnosis, transgender people and trading in human organs, at its upcoming national meeting.
Anwar Abbas, head of the organizing committee for the meeting, said the transgender issue came in the wake of the recent case of Alterina Hofan, who suffered from a rare disorder that caused his mother to mistakenly register him as a girl at birth.
Alterina is currently on trial for illegally amending his gender status to male on his identification documents.
“The urgency of addressing this case was expressed by the public, and not because the MUI wanted to weigh in on it ourselves,” Anwar said.
Source: halalfocus
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