Ismail Sabri lifts APs on meat, leaving the nation’s food security at the hands of corrupt JAKIM officers

Ismail Sabri lifts APs on meat, leaving the nation’s food security at the hands of corrupt JAKIM officers

Corruption will not solve Malaysia’s looming food crisis

Murray Hunter
May 20





Malaysia’s beleaguered prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob just lifted the requirement for Approved Permits (APs) on most food items in a move to alleviate the country’s looming food crisis. Many food items across the country face chronic shortages accompanied by rapidly rising prices.

Ismail Sabri is currently under heavy criticism for his mishandling of the economy. He was also criticised for bringing nothing back from the ASEAN dialogue with US President Joe Biden, after Indonesian President Joko Widodo had serious talks with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk about investing in Indonesia. Thousand of military retirees are marching on Putra Jaya to complain about their financial plight to the prime minister.

APs have been widely criticized for a long period of time for being an unnecessary bureaucratic measure, and used as a tool to favour politically connected importers. The Kepong DAP MP Lim Lip Eng was reported as saying APS lead to corruption and increase the cost of imported goods.

As reported in FMT, a quotation from Ismail Sabri at a Hari Raya function read as follows:

However, the removal of APs on food products is only partial where strategic staples like rice are still under a monopoly by Bernas. In addition, although APs have been removed, companies still require an import permit (IP).

Meat products now at the mercy of corrupt JAKIM officers

The effect of prime minister Ismail Sabri’s lifting of APS on meat products now strengthens the hands of rogue JAKIM officers controlling the halal certification of meat processors and exporters to Malaysia.

Any abattoir exporting to Malaysia must be audited by JAKIM officers. The writer has received testimonies from a number of meat processors from Brazil, South Africa, Ukraine, and Europe who are seeking halal certification from JAKIM.

The general theme of these testimonies is that abattoirs have been asked for payments by middlemen acting on behalf of JAKIM for certification. A number of abattoirs have refused to pay this, ending up not being certified by JAKIM. Others have paid fees to “agents” and still not been accredited. Most of these abattoirs in question have long been halal certified by UAE, Dubai, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

Accredited abattoirs are placed on an approved importer list on the Malaysian Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) website. Malaysia has approved one abattoir in Argentina, 1 in South Africa, 2 in Brazil, and 16 in Australia. There are also 11 abattoirs certified in India for buffalo meat.

Snapshot of a page in the MAFI list

This indicates a strong JAKIM bias towards Australia, where the recent revelations by a whistle blower named as “Abdullah” claimed that rogue officers from JAKIM and Singapore’s Majlis Ugama Singapore (MUIS) are controlling which Halal certifying organizations and abattoirs are accredited.

Quoting Utusan Malaysia the transcription of some of the conversation at a recent press conference to expose JAKIM corruption was as follows:

“Anytime you’re welcome. In this embassy, people sh** in their pants when they want to come. Everybody ..ICCV. Moktha. When I go there, they promise me. Brother this is two weeks after Ramadan. They’ re gone. But after two week, they were delisted. Everybody is how come Adil Rahman can say oh this one delisted oh this one delisted they don’t know who did it.

(Any time you are welcome. At this embassy, ​​many are scared when they want to come. Everyone ICCV. Moktha. When I go there, they promise me. Brother two weeks after Ramadan, they are gone. "After two weeks, they were delisted. Everyone knows why Adil Rahman can say ' oh this is delisted, oh this is delisted,' they don't know who did it," according to the recording.“

Meat coming into Malaysia is now completely under the control of rogue JAKIM officers who have turned the industry into an organized racketeering operation. More alarming this is being covered up with misinformation from the ............................... (deleted)

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Diplomatic consequences

It appears that JAKIM and the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water, and Environment (DAWE) are working very closely together, and that DAWE has been assisting JAKIM in the cover up of halal protocol breaches at the Thomas Foods International (TFI) abattoir. The Australian government has been in the middle of a massive campaign to promote Australian Lamb to Asia. This looks like it has compromised DAWE. Anna Somerville deputy director of export standards of the Department has not answered requests for further information by the writer.

This has not gone unnoticed by Australia’s meat export competitors. The writer has been informed the BRICs member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are all critical of JAKIM.

Some are claiming prime minister Ismail Sabri’s announcement to end APs on some food items was only intended to appease diplomatic and international criticism.

Postscript

A day after prime minister Ismail Sabri announced his “game changing” dropping of APs for food items, a MAFI press release specified only a limited set of items that would not require APS. This in effect means that meats, excepting chicken are not exempted.

Consequently, this may indicate friction within the cabinet, where Ismail Sabri was sabotaged the MAFI minister Ronald Kiandee. What must be noted here is that Ronald Kiandee is a Bersatu member. If this is the correct interpretation, then there will likely be friction within the multiparty cabinet, which aren’t cooperating electorally in the coming general election.

The other two explanations are incompetence, or straight out lying.

Readers will have to make their own conclusions.