After the controversial socks bearing the word “Allah”, KK Mart has courted yet another fiasco. This time, it’s over “ham and cheese sandwich” sold at its convenience store in University Malaya. The sandwiches were sold with the halal logo despite allegedly not been officially certified, forcing the store to be temporarily closed whilst triggering yet another explosive uproar.
Sold at one of the 16 KK Concept Stores, the sandwich was quickly exploited by extremist and radical Malay politicians such as UMNO Youth Chief Akmal Saleh, who relentlessly attacks the Chinese-owned business. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Mohd Na’im Mokhtar too has capitalized on the issue, calling it a “serious offence”.
The scumbag Akmal has also taken to TikTok to express his so-called outrage. In the TikTok video, he falsely said “ham” contains pork and asked how a sandwich containing pork could have a halal label on it. He then reminded KK Mart that the Muslim community is still angry regarding the previous religious sock controversy, warning that this matter will not be taken lightly.
KK Mart had suspended all business dealings with the ham and sandwich supplier – Shake and Bake Cafe – and halted the supply of its sandwiches to all its outlets. The store chain had also issued a letter of demand to its supplier through its legal team, as well as filing a police report. Shake and Bake Cafe, meanwhile, was raided by Jakim (Islamic Development Department Malaysia).
However, a few days later (January 15), the supplier of the pre-packed chicken ham and cheese sandwiches sold by Shake and Bake Cafe confirmed that the meat used in the product is halal-certified. As it turned out, the sandwich ingredients – bread, cheese and chicken slices – were halal-certified by none other than the notorious Jakim itself.
But it was Jakim that had previously declared that the sandwiches, along with the company producing them, did not possess valid halal certification. It’s both hilarious and dumb for Jakim to say that the bread is halal, the cheese is halal, and even the chicken ham is halal, but when use all of them to make a sandwich, it suddenly becomes non-halal or forbidden.
Unless the plastic wrap used to package the ham sandwich is non-halal, it’s laughable to say the food is haram (forbidden) when all the ingredients were already halal-certified. In fact, Malaysia has become a laughing stock even in Indonesia for trying to be too obsessed with “halal-ness” till some extremist Malays foam – even develop ulcer – at the mouth trying to make a hill out of a mole.
Basically, there are three different issues on this so-called ham sandwich. For a Russian graduate doctor like Mr Akmal to hoodwink gullible Malays that ham means pork speaks volumes about his stupidity and ignorance. While ham was originally made from pork (hence the birth of hamburger), the processed meat nowadays could be made from chicken or something called “Turkey” ham.
Therefore, ham isn’t necessarily made from pork as a simple Google could clear the doubts. For Malay students of the University Malaya to be equally dumb like the moron Akmal and can’t use common sense and intelligence to tell the difference is even more disturbing and flabbergasting. What a waste going through years of education only to end up with Taliban mindset.
The second issue is the halal logo itself. Even if the company had misused the logo, it’s wrong to say the sandwich is forbidden. The halal-ness of the sandwich and the halal logo are two separate issues altogether. For Akmal to create a perception – even instigating – that Malay Muslims have been tricked into eating pork sandwich is both irresponsible and disgusting.
Still, it does not explain why Jakim insists the final product – ham sandwich – is not halal despite using halal ingredients to make the delicious food. If the issue is about the logo, and has nothing to do with the food, then it’s merely about the technicalities. Halal food and halal-certified food are two different things here. You eat the sandwich, not the logo. It was like insisting a Honda / BMW cannot be driven on the road unless it gets a logo to certify that it’s a car.
How difficult it is to wrap a piece of cheese and sliced chicken ham between two pieces of bread? If such simple food preparation still needs an approval from the useless Jakim to be halal-certified, then 99% of the food on the market are technically non-halal, including nasi lemak, fried chicken, sizzling yee mee, yong tau foo, pizzas, meatballs, sushi, and whatnot sold at food court in shopping centres.
Yes, how do the Malays know that ingredients like bee hoon, yellow mee, fish paste, meatballs, chicken, sausage or tau foo, let alone the final products, are halal? Was there any halal logo on that plate of sizzling yee mee, yong tau foo or dim sum sold at food courts, for example? Just because the food is sold and cooked by Malays does not mean they are 100% halal, mind you.
Heck, how do you even know that the poultry feed for chickens, or the boba in bubble tea, or the smoked sausage is not tainted with pig DNA? After all, previously the brilliant Jakim and some genius Malays were screaming till their face turned blue about Cadbury tainted with pig DNA, forcing the chocolate maker to recall its products from the shelves.
To be absolutely halal-compliant, Malays who are constantly losing sleep over halal-ness of food must buy their raw materials and products from Muslim producers and manufacturers only. Essentially, they should stop importing from non-Muslim countries including China, India, U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America and the list goes on.
In fact, they should boycott ethnic Chinese local-made products like eggs, tau foo, mee, bee hoon, kuey teow, soya sauce, biscuits, white coffee, snacks, diapers, beverages and even those juicy chicken from Pasar Selayang wholesale market. They should also produce their own baby formula, and avoid Tealive, Chicken Rice Shop, 99 Speedmart, NSK, 7-Eleven, Johnny’s Steamboat because they are owned by Chinese.
To be sure, they should stop buying anything from Shopee or Lazada as products sold on the e-commerce platform could be non-halal. How sure are they that the clothing being sold did not contain material from prohibited animals like pig and dog because they do not have Jakim’s halal logo? Hilariously, the same holier-than-thou Malays have no issue accepting banknotes tainted with pork and lard.
The third issue is the burning question why the same Malay extremists still buy a sandwich despite having called for a boycott on KK Mart previously. Why did they care about the halal-ness of the food sold at the kafir convenience stores if they are already boycotting KK Mart? The answer is obvious – they just wanted to create unnecessary troubles and destroy Chinese businesses.
And we know why UMNO Akmal has been falsely and deliberately stirring up racial and religion sentiments among the Malays that the Muslims are being insulted by non-Malays. He wanted to become a Malay hero at the expense of racial harmony, hoping that the continuous and excessive hatred for ethnic Chinese could swing back Malay voters who had abandoned UMNO.
He dares to constantly provoke, bully and attack the Chinese largely because spineless Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has no balls to reprimand the UMNO youth chief. The premier still hasn’t the clue that the Chinese voters are waiting – silently – for the next 16th General Election to teach his PKR (People’s Justive Party) a lesson he won’t forget.
Halal certification is merely a marketing gimmick to justify the existence of Jakim, which PM Anwar Ibrahim burnt RM2 billion in annual budget allocation. Are you saying that before the invention of the halal sticker and the formation of Jakim in 1997, Malay Muslims – including Akmal’s ancestors – could not go to heaven for consuming non-halal food? If ham is pork, then all the Malay Muslims have theoretically been eating pork for having eaten “hamburger” (pork burger) for decades.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
- financetwitter
