Haikal Hassan Invites People To Boycott The Halal Logo Made By The Government, Ruhut Sitompul: Which People, Kadrun?

PDIP politician Ruhut Sitompul. (Instagram/ruhutp.sitompul)

JAKARTA - Secretary General of the HRS Center, Haikal Hassan, invites Muslims to reject the halal logo made by the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag). The reason is that he believes more in the previous halal logo made by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).

The call for a boycott of the halal logo was conveyed by Haikal via the Salam 2jari YouTube account, yesterday. In the video, Haikal asks the government to understand that it does not believe in the latest halal logo published by the Ministry of Religion.

"What I follow and we the people follow the halal set by the MUI," he said.

Knowing this, PDI-P politician Ruhut Sitompul assessed that Haikal's actions were endlessly opposed to government policies. He considered Haikal to be part of the hurtful ranks who still haven't moved on from the 2019 Presidential Election.

"Which people? Ha ha ha, you guys are hurt, Kadrun is only a small group," said Ruhut through his Twitter account, @ruhutsitompul, Tuesday, March 15.

Ruhut then gave moral encouragement to the Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas who was against the legitimacy of obtaining a halal certificate from the MUI to the Ministry of Religion through the Halal Product Guarantee Agency (BPJPH).

Luhut also considers the new halal logo cooler than the old logo made by MUI. He did not mind some of the parties who judged the new halal logo design to be too close to the Javanese design.

"Go ahead, the Minister of Religion of Indonesia. Why does it appear that if you go to Java, the halal logo is indeed kreeeeeeeen MERDEKA," he continued.

As is known, the new halal label was inaugurated by the Ministry of Religion through BPJPH. The determination of the latest halal label is contained in the Decree of the Head of BPJPH Number 40 of 2022 concerning the Determination of the Halal Label.

The decision was signed by the Head of BPJPH Muhammad Aqil Irham on February 10, 2022. The new halal label will take effect nationally on March 1, 2022.

Meaning of New Halal Logo Design

Aqil said that the halal label philosophically adapts Indonesian values. The shapes and patterns used are cultural artifacts that have unique characteristics that have strong characters and represent Indonesian Halal.

"The form of the Indonesian halal label consists of two objects, namely the Gunungan shape and the Surjan or Lurik Gunungan motif on the shadow puppets in the shape of a pyramid, pointing upwards. This symbolizes human life," Aqil illustrated, quoted from his written statement.

Meanwhile, the gunungan design in the logo is arranged in such a way as to form Arabic calligraphy consisting of the letters: Ha, Lam Alif, and Lam in a series to form the word Halal.

This form illustrates that the higher the knowledge and the older the age, the human must be more conical (golong gilig) to merge soul, taste, creation, intention, and work in life, or get closer to the Creator.

Meanwhile, Surjan's motif which is also called piety clothing contains deep philosophical meanings. Among them, the neck of Surjan's shirt has 3 pairs of buttons (6 buttons) all of which describe the pillars of faith.

In addition, the surjan/striated motifs that are parallel to each other also have meaning as a clear distinction/delimiter.

"This is in line with the purpose of implementing Halal Product Guarantee in Indonesia to provide comfort, security, safety, and certainty of the availability of halal products for the public in consuming and using the product," he said.