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Cover Story
@ Halal | January-February . 2021
Late last year , the country reverberated with the domestic halal meat industry ’ s shocking and damning expose . It revolved around systemic and institutional corruption by a cartel comprising foreign exporters with the alleged connivance of four government agencies , a provocative reminder of how entrenched such a culture is in Malaysia .
It was shocking the corruption involved routine or your typical bureaucratic procedures and the Islamic core injunction of halal food . This was mainly about the prescribed ritual slaughter of meat for Muslims ’ consumption according to the fundamental tenets of the faith , and to boot violated presumably by government officers who are themselves Muslims .
A double transgression in which the corruption and the trickery resulted in Muslims being unaware they were consuming nonhalal meat strongly prohibited by Islam . What ’ s more , the cartel had been active for forty years .
It has also ramifications for the food safety aspect . Apart from the reactive need to fortify the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission ( MACC ) with more resources , and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry ( Mafi ) to increase its governance on the issuance of approval permit ( AP ) for meat importers into Malaysia . Given corruption is now a way of life in Malaysia , there ’ s pressing and proactive need to be ahead of the curve to prevent such incidents from recurring .
Ensuring halal integrity
Time to ramp up the halal certification process ’ s digitalisation by assimilating blockchain technology
By Jamari Mohtar & Jason Loh
One proactive measure that should be implemented immediately is for the issuing authorities – in this case , Mafi ( for issuing the AP ) and the Department of Islamic Develop-
Blockchain 101 : What it is all about ?
Blockchain technology is a disruptive technology and part of the fourth industrial revolution , which is expected to change the way we work and live . Also known as distributed ledger technology ( DLT ), it will disrupt all the devious and cunning strategies of any cartel to achieve their fraudulent objective .
Through smart contracts , DLT could digitally prescribe processes and requirements according to a halal standard , verify halal compliance , and enforce halal supply chains ’ performance .
A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to digitally facilitate , verify or enforce the negotiation or performance . Smart contracts allow the execution of credible transactions without third parties .
Because blockchain is a decentralised system that exists between all permitted parties , there ’ s no need to pay intermediaries ( middlemen ), ment ( Jakim ) for halal certification – to go the blockchain route .
The Malaysian Customs has already introduced a blockchain platform called TradeLens that could boost tracking and traceability . TradeLens is an open and neutral supply chain platform underpinned by blockchain technology that enables real information sharing and collaboration across supply chains , increasing industry innovation , reducing trade friction and ultimately promoting more global trade .
Moving forward , it could be the base by which the entire halal certification process and network driven by blockchain technology is operationalised . The TradeLens platform was jointly developed by AP Moller-Maersk with IBM . It is based on the Collaboration Application Programming Interface ( API ) concept – ensuring all logistic activities such as haulage , warehousing , shipping and freight
and it saves you monies , time and conflict . Although DLT has its problems , it is undeniably faster , cheaper and more secure than traditional systems , which is why banks and governments are turning to them .
When someone requests a transaction , the request is broadcasted to a peer-to-peer ( P2P ) network consisting of computers , also known as nodes , which validate the transaction and the user ’ s status using known algorithms .
Once verified , the transaction is combined with other similar , previously-verified transactions to create a new block of data for the ledger , which is then added to the existing blockchain , in a way that is permanent and unalterable . The transaction is now complete while waiting for another transaction .
As an encrypted ledger database , blockchain is almost impossible to hack , making its records or blocks permanently verifiable . As