Row over halal food shows Malaysia Not Truly Asia

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YOURSAY ‘Are we trying to promote Malaysia or Islam to tourists?’

 

Tourism players see red over non-halal food ban

      

J Ng: Certain groups of idiots are trying to undermine PM Najib Razak's call for a moderate Muslim country. And since when has the auditor-general’s role include monitoring of religious practices?

 

It is time the Tourism Ministry relook our tourism promotion campaigns. The 'Truly Asia' slogan should not be used anymore as it has to incorporate the ethnic and religious diversity in Malaysia.

 

Places of interest that are non-Islamic should be banned from all tourism brochures. This will help ensure and prevent 'insulting and confusing ' our local Muslims brothers and sisters.

 

Better still, all hotels that serve alcohol should not be featured or promoted to ensure we don't confuse our overseas Muslim counterparts.

 

ACR: Vegetarians like me can never eat typical halal food in this country because it does not meet my dietary specifications.

 

Most Hindus and Buddhists too cannot consume beef. Tourists from China and the West are a major market for us and they consume pork.

 

The auditor-general's otherwise sterling performance has been marred by an evidently idiotic officer who did the audit on this ‘Fabulous Food 1Malaysia’ fair.

 

If this was a ‘Fabulous Halal Food Fair’, it would have made sense.        

 

Hmmmmmmmm: Are we trying to promote Malaysia or Islam? Malaysia has so many different communities living here with their different food, not all of which is halal.

 

So if the intention is to promote Malaysia, we must also promote their food. If the Tourism Ministry wants the other communities to ‘halalise’ their food, it's better for them to give the Fair a miss. It's tantamount to cheating the tourists about the authenticity of our food.

 

Odysseus: It is not within auditor-general’s jurisdiction to comment or decide what food should be served.

 

Perhaps, he may comment on food which is not part of our local cultures, i.e. hamburger, sushi, etc. The auditor-general should focus more on his core competency to stop the country from bleeding financially.

 

1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) needs his attention badly and he is not touching it.

 

Odin: I can quite understand why the auditor-general has picked on this piggy matter. Year in and year out, he has been pointing out how thousands of thousands and hundreds of millions and tens of billions in public resources and funds have been stolen, abused and misused but no action has been taken against the culprits.

 

Pick on piggy matter, and he's sure to get a reaction. It makes all his auditing efforts worthwhile, and shows that he has earned his salary. Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to enjoy my barbecued pork.

 

Ayfy19: “Yesterday, the ministry said that it will no longer serve non-halal food, following a reprimand in the latest Auditor-General’s Report". 

 

It is not the auditor-general's job to spell out policy on what food can be or cannot be served.

 

His job is to examine if the money spent on the food - whatever kind of food - has been properly approved by the appropriate officers in the Ministry of Tourism, who should have follow SOP (standard operating procedure) and the budget.

 

In this case, the auditor-general's reprimand is misplaced - what he has stated can only be a matter of opinion which bears no weight as far as compliance of the SOP is concerned.

 

Fire_rock: Whilst appreciating the good job done by the auditor-general, once a while this department needs to face reality.

 

If a vast majority of the tourist arrivals are from Muslim countries then it was most appropriate that halal food should be promoted. I bet most of the arrivals into Malaysia are from the Far East hence what is wrong with non-halal cuisine being promoted?

 

For example, Ipoh Old Town white coffee and Klang bak kut teh are very popular with the mainland Chinese. The other day when I was in Tokyo I saw a Visit Malaysia billboard showing a young romantic couple holding on to a wine glass each enjoying our scenic beauty.

 

NuckinFuts: The auditor-general should only point out that the money spent on such a festival should include food from all cultures to ensure taxpayers' money is well-spent.

 

I would be more shocked if millions are spent just to promote food from one culture when the festival is named a ‘Malaysian’ food festival.

 

Jaguh: When I was in Jordan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, I had bacon and sausages for breakfast. They served them in hotels and there was no halal sign. It just said ‘pork’.

 

Apa Ini?: Indeed, how can this be an issue? All food displayed must simply be labelled accordingly and the visitor can choose to eat according to his or her beliefs and preference.

 

Oriole: If Malaysia is to be a world player, they need to boot out all in-bred idiots who have little grasped of the world, culture or knowledge from our ministries.

 

These clowns have no place in making decisions. What a embarrassing bunch of nincompoops. Where is the tourism minister in all this?

 

Kim Quek: When even the auditor-general joins the religious extremism bandwagon, you know that Malaysia has travelled far and furious in its creeping Talibanisation journey as part of a dramatic policy reversal of Najib’s administration since the last general election.

 

I can’t imagine what will come next in this slide down a bottomless pit.


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