'PORK CHOCS': Umno-BN inefficiency makes Malaysia an international laughing stock - AGAIN!

From time to time the Umno-led BN regime takes the people for fools.

This is what one would make of the recent fiasco surrounding the “halalness” of chocolate products produced by a prominent multinational company, Cadbury. The chocolates manufactured by the company were known to be halal because it had the halal logo on its wrappings for all its range of products. Then all of a sudden two varieties were declared as “haram” because tests on them found traces of porcine DNA.

Immediately a furore gripped the entire nation to the extent that a band of NGOs claiming to represent Muslims stated that Cadbury had deceived Muslims, exploited the good faith Muslims had in the company and a host of other things all directed to “punish” the company. So much so that even a lady in the group was suggesting that the company would have to foot the bill to cleanse the “contaminated” blood arising from consumption of the chocolate products of affected families – a ridiculous unIslamic act of course.

But as the days passed, out of the blue on June 2, the minister in charge of “religious affairs” comes out to say that the Cadbury chocolates are halal after all, after some tests had been done on them. The minister is reported to have said that the earlier tests conducted by the Health Ministry could have been flawed, due among others to the fact that the samples did not come directly from the Cadbury factory but might have been “contaminated” resulting in porcine DNA being discovered. He also felt that the lab that did the earlier test was not an accredited one.

It appears on the surface that the issue is one of ensuring the “halalness” of food or other products consumed by Muslims and how the authorities are doing what they can to ensure this requirement is met. But given the inefficiency and political interference that prevails, what much can the people hope for?

The “halal” fiasco is another example of the hollowness of the government transformation programme as touted by the premier. For a department that comes directly under his care but not being able to “transform” is surely the biggest irony. What is obvious from this episode is the attitude of people like the minister who are only good at making nice sounding statements and appearing on the regime-controlled media to fool the people into thinking that the government has taken utmost care in ensuring that the people really “come first” as in the slogan of 1Malaysia, when the fact is really the opposite. Instead we have this merry-go-round of saying one thing at one time and another some other time.

Instead of looking after the peoples’ welfare they have been taking them for a ride with this on-off-on again (halal-not halal-halal) stand.

Apparently the sudden turnaround in declaring the chocolates halal apparently was also due to reports that some of the shareholders of the company were from large conglomerates linked to the government itself. If this were true, it bodes more problems for the Muslim community.

Should not the so-called Muslim NGOs direct the cannons at the minister and his department rather than the producers since it was the department’s negligence or inefficiency that created the problem in the first place? -Harakahdaily