Food, faith, power and big business in Malaysia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Hew Wai Weng<\/a> 13 January, 2017<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/em><\/p>\n However, the LPPOM MUI was likely confident that the BPJPH will assign them as an LPH, considering their large resources of auditors and expertise on Halal certification. One observer was concerned the bill could elevate the legal status of the MUI\u2019s fatwa<\/a> to an unprecedented level. Others predicted the MUI would dramatically increase the income<\/a> from Halal certification in the new system as the new law makes it compulsory for the companies to apply for Halal certification.<\/p>\n The MUI\u2019s optimism was not wholly unfounded, considering the history of intimate relations between the state and MUI. Founded in 1975, the MUI was formed by the Suharto regime to assist their policy on regulating the Muslim community. Later the Yudhoyono administration reinvigorated the council by providing political and financial patronage to the organisation, expecting to seize the social capital of the burgeoning middle-class conservative Muslim constituency. From there, the MUI managed to redefine itself as an organisation that serves umat<\/em> (Muslim community)<\/a> and endeavoured to Islamise the Indonesian society in accordance with the conservative interpretation of the Sunni orthodoxy.<\/p>\n The membership of the MUI executive committee is a testament to this development. The central board of the MUI is an amalgamation of religious intellectuals as well as leaders who represent various Islamic mass organisations (ormas<\/em>) in Indonesia. As such, there is always an internal contestation<\/a> between the competing Islamic religious strands within the board. During the Yudhoyono presidency, an increasing number of conservative ulamas joined the executive committee at the expense of pluralist ulamas, establishing the ascendance of conservatism within the council.<\/p>\n This has allowed the MUI to become the chief orchestrator<\/a> of the \u201cconservative turn\u201d of Islam in Indonesia. Its status as a semi-official clerical body has yielded strong legitimacy to its fatwas, which have aimed at the \u201cpurification\u201d of the Indonesian society. Notably, the MUI has had a history of issuing controversial fatwas targeting religious pluralism, liberalism and secularism, as well as the Ahmadiyya community. Many Islamist vigilante organisations took such fatwas into their own hands, resulting in religious violence in some cases.<\/p>\n The Joko Widodo administration attempted to reduce the amount of government support, however, backed by the proponents of pluralist Islam who raised concern over the MUI fatwas. Widodo initially slashed informal financial patronage<\/a> toward members of the organisation from the Yudhoyono era. Coincidentally, puritanical clerics took over MUI\u2019s national congress in 2015, which determined the management board of the 2015-2020 period. Islamist activists and Salafi Islamic leaders such as Bachtiar Nasir, Zaytun Rasmin, Yusuf Martak and late Tengku Zulkarnain were elected as executives, further propelling the conservative turn of the MUI<\/a>.\u00a0In the wake of the national congress, the MUI played a critical role<\/a> during the infamous Aksi Bela Islam<\/em> rally which targeted Basuki \u201cAhok\u201d Tjahaja Purnama, which resulted in then-Jakarta governor being convicted and jailed for blasphemy<\/a>.<\/p>\n It seems the role of the MUI within the conservative turn of Indonesian Islam has invited backlash from the Widodo administration in the form of an increasing government oversight over the council. The development of the issue of Halal certification supports this theory.<\/p>\n The administration initiated a \u201cpreemptive strike\u201d during the selection of the BPJPH head in August 2017. Lukmanul Hakim, the director of LPPOM MUI and one of the leading candidates of the chair, was removed<\/a> from the shortlist by the Ministry of Religious Affairs three days before the official announcement. Instead the Ministry appointed Sukoso, a university professor with a modest background as the director of the BPJPH.<\/p>\n From there, a cold war between LPPOM MUI and the BPJPH intensified. In August 2019, headed by Ikhsan Abdullah, the director of the MUI\u2019s Law Commission and an attorney representing Lukmanul Hakim, LPPOM MUI\u2019s 31 regional branches filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court to assert their legal credentials and demanded the revocation of several articles of the UU JPH, to prevent the complete transfer of the mandate. Among the reasons for the lawsuit, LPPOM MUI emphasised Halal as the realm of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh<\/em>) and reasserted the \u201cnormativity\u201d of the ulama<\/a>\u00a0 handling Halal certification instead of the government. The court immediately dismissed the lawsuit and LPPOM MUI was barred<\/a> from reapplying for the revision of the contested articles.<\/p>\n The conflict reached its peak in 2020 with the introduction of the Job Creation Law (UU Cipta Kerja) or the Omnibus Law. The dispute<\/a> revolved around the previously mentioned LPH. The BPJPH urged the parliamentary committee on the bill to put Halal certification into consideration and revise the UU JPH. The BPJPH complained there are not enough auditors to sustain its operation, as LPPOM MUI monopolised Halal auditors. The MUI has been the only body in Indonesia that can train and certify Halal auditors.<\/p>\n Reflecting on this issue, the parliamentary committee on the bill decided to open the gate for other entities, such as the universities and Islamic ormas (e.g. Nahdlatul Ulama), to establish their own LPH, and to revoke the requirement of Halal auditors to obtain certifications from the MUI. As a result, LPH will be able to form partnerships with the BPJPH to process audits without the involvement of the MUI. The decision infuriated the MUI.<\/p>\n In the end, the recent Omnibus Law included a significant revision<\/a> of the UU JPH, mainly concerning fees, duration of certification and the regulations surrounding LPH. Based on the Omnibus Law, in February 2021 the parliament passed the Halal Product Assurance Law (UU JPH) No.39\/2021, which stipulated that LPH can be formed not only by universities and Islamic ormas but also by the state-owned enterprises and government at all levels. Under this regulation, not only did the MUI lose authority over Halal auditors but the state also increased its prerogative to influence the outcome of the Halal certification process.<\/p>\n Concurrently, the MUI was reorganised. After the 2020 national congress held in November to decide the MUI executive committee of the 2020-2025 period, the MUI removed<\/a> Islamist leaders from the central board and replaced them with pluralist ulamas mainly hailing from Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah. The MUI\u2019s new executive committees will likely follow the direction of the government and smooth relations with the BPJPH.<\/p>\n With the reorganization of the MUI executives, the conflict between LPPOM MUI and the BPJPH effectively made a \u201csoft landing.\u201d In March 2021, the secretary-general of the MUI Amirsyah Tambunan and the new head of BPJPH Mastuki agreed<\/a> the two organisations will foster cooperation to accelerate Halal certification for the benefit of the economy. The \u201csoft landing\u201d has likely urged LPPOM MUI to accept its position within the new Halal certification regime and respond to the long-standing accusation of corruption. In April, the institution announced<\/a> it has been implementing an anti-bribery management system in a bid to improve governance standards.<\/p>\n However, the critical issue regarding the accountability of the MUI remains unaddressed. The politics of Halal certification can be interpreted as a win for Widodo, pluralist ulamas and business interests, and a defeat for Islamist agenda. But the ambiguous legal basis and unregulated system that created the MUI\u2019s lack of transparency remains. LPPOM MUI still maintains its position<\/a> on the question of financial disclosure and denies its responsibility to report to the public. This demonstrates that increasing central government oversight over religious affairs is an issue of power struggles, rather than democratic integrity.<\/p>\n The post Politics of Halal certification: the collapse of the MUI\u2019s long-held monopoly<\/a> appeared first on New Mandala<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the wake of increased government oversight, questions nonetheless remain over the MUI\u2019s accountability.History of intimate state-MUI relations<\/h4>\n
Backlash against the MUI and increasing central government oversight<\/h4>\n
\nThe post Politics of Halal certification: the collapse of the MUI\u2019s long-held monopoly appeared first on New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66779"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66988,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66779\/revisions\/66988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}