JAKARTA – A draft law to obligate all products to be halal-certified before going to the market in the world's most populous Muslim countries is stirring a heated debate and pitting the government against the Islamic supreme body.

"In the future, halal certification will be a must," Prof. Nazaruddin Umar, Deputy Religious Affairs Minister, told IslamOnline on.

According to Nazaruddin, the bill – which consists of twelve chapters and 44 articles – is aimed at ensuring food, beverage, drug, cosmetic, chemical products and derivative or exported products are allowed to be consumed by the people.

"That aims to make us secure in consuming the products," he asserted.

Currently, applying for a halal certification is based on the voluntary initiative of business entities that register their products with the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) to obtain the certificate.

The MUI cooperates with the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Examination Institute (LPPOM) in examining the ingredient of the products before being certified.

"This means there is no legal punishment for those who are not registering their products," explains Nazaruddin, a former Shari`ah professor in the National Islamic University.

This will not be the case once the new bill is ratified.

"After being passed into law, all products must pass halal certification," he stressed.

"The labeling is not an optional anymore. So, the consequence is the punishment for those who are neglecting the regulation."

Violators would get up to eight years in jail and fined as much as six billion rupiah (US$600,000).

• Authority struggle

The bill is still being debated in the House of Representative (DPR) with differences on whether the auditor of the products should remain the LPPOM-MUI or moving the responsibility for an auditor independent or a general services body. "We have not decided yet," Said Abdullah, the vice chairman of the parliament's commission working on the bill, told IOL.

He highlighted another bone of contention.

"Second who gives the fatwa, from the auditor or the fatwa body?"

The bill stipulates that the MUI, a forum of ulames and religious experts, certifies a product as halal in accordance with Shari`ah.

Another chapter of the bill also stipulates that the religious affairs minister, in cooperation with the MUI, determines a product as halal or not.

MUI chairman Ma’ruf Amin insists that his organization is the most competent party to issue the audit of certification and fatwa related to halal certification.

"The halal certification needs a written fatwa, so it must be from MUI," he told IOL.

Ma’ruf, a presidential advisor, accuses the parliament and the government of curtailing the role of MUI by not giving it the authority of stamping the halal certification.

He says that under the new law the MUI would has an insignificant role in the certification profess, only giving recommendations to the government on whether a product is halal or not.

"It’s a setback…We are only a minor element of the certification system."

Ma’ruf insists that the full authorization of halal certification must be given back to his Islamic supreme institution.

"The government is okay for supervision, law enforcement, administration and fees. But for the fatwa should be the ulemas’ domain."

Professor Nazaruddin, the Deputy Religious Affairs Minister, denied seeking to sideline the MUI.

"It’s not true. The law is a legal product so it must be under the government," he stressed.

"About halal and haram is for sure to be the domain of MUI. We are only sharing jobs."

• Criticism

Business entities and non-Muslims are also critical of the bill, saying it could discriminate against some citizens and make the business inefficient.

"Indonesia is not an Islamic state that only accommodates a certain religion," MP Ruyandi Hutasoit, chairman of the Christian Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), told IOL.

Ruyandi said imposing the law is a precedent of damaging pluralism and part of attempts to adopt Shari`ah in all aspect of life, which is against the state ideology Pancasila.

"Pluralism and Pancasila are meant to bring religions and these cultural diversities together, united as a nation," he stressed.

"Indonesia was built not only by one religion."

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation with a population of 220 million, around 85 percent of them follow Islam.

Christians account for about 10 percent of the populace.

"To be honest I don’t feel safe with the plan of implementing the law," said Ruyandi.

He said a number of Islamic-based laws on pornography, zakat, marriage and Shari`ah-compliant financial system can create disharmony among the people.  

Prof. Nazaruddin, the Deputy Religious Affairs Minister, denied the accusation, saying that in Predominantly Christian countries Islamic-based legal products already exist, citing halal product laws in England and Singapore.

"What's wrong if Indonesia as the biggest Muslim population country is implementing the law.

"We are not discriminative at all, as you know, in many countries people taking benefit from Shari`ah system.”