I feel that the writer of the letter “Halal cert and hotels” (The Star, June 30) is biased, not to mention playing the blame game.
Why blame the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) for slow issuance of the Halal certificate? Did the writer bother to find out what these “petty and less important” issues are?
It may be petty to the association but it matters a lot when it comes to the requirements of having a Halal certificate issued to a hotel. For example, if a hotel serves alcoholic beverages with meals ordered from the halal menu in the room service, doesn’t that act alone contravenes the requirement?
Most of the hotels that I have stayed in have a sunken pool bar which also serves food. Being a Muslim, I won’t order any meal from that outlet because it serves alcohol too.
I had my fair share of experience as a chef in some of the hotels in Malaysia and Australia. I noticed that most hotels in Malaysia only hire foreigners for the position of executive chef. How much priority do you think these chefs will give when it comes to the halal requirement on F&B?
During one of my tours as a chef in one of these hotels in Malaysia, I noticed the executive chef, a German, having his lunch of ham and cheese in his office in the presence of his sous chefs, who are Muslims. How ignorant can one be?
I suggest to all hotel owners, for a start, to hire locals, preferably Muslims, to be your executive chef and, at the very least, he or she will give top priority when it comes to creating a halal kitchen environment.
I have also witnessed cutlery, pots and pans from a non-halal outlet ending up in the main kitchen which dishes out halal food. Some of these hotels and coffee houses also serve alcoholic beverages together with meals ordered. Doesn’t this kind of service cause delays in your Halal certification?
Just because hotel owners have invested millions of dollars in their hotels, they cannot assume that if they apply for any government certificates, petty things like the requirements for Halal certification can be overlooked by the governing bodies.
People, particularly Muslims, don’t really need to verify whether an outlet/restaurant/stall is halal or not because they know it is if the owner is a Muslim, and the kitchen is often managed by the same person.
How does a Muslim know which hotels serve truly halal food when the head of the hotel kitchen is run by a Mat Salleh? As a Muslim, I want to stress on a stricter certification when it comes to determining whether the hotel’s kitchen is truly conforming to the halal requirements.
The HDC should place “spies” in hotel kitchens to report on their compliance, irregardless of the role these hotels play in our economy. The Government should not compromise on the requirements for issuing Halal certificates to any of these hotels.
A. RAHIM CHAN ABDULLAH,
Ampang.