Another Kind of 'Halal'

Salam..... on May 24, 2010 (monday), I was invited to speak at the 2010 Conference of Executives Secretaries and Personal Assistants at JW Marriot, Kuala Lumpur. The Conference was organized by M2Asia Sdn. Bhd. The topic that was given to me is about Smart Money Management. I do not intent to discuss about my talk/topic here today. I would be more interested to talk/discuss on the subject that was put forward by one of the speakers, Mr Albert. Our discussion on the topic was at the sideline, i.e. not for the main Conference; it was rather a 'coffee break talk'. We talked about Halal market, Malaysia being the Halal Hub, and Halal products.

What interest me most is that Mr. Albert is a non-muslim Malaysian Chinese is involved in promoting Malaysia as a halal products producers and halal hub. He is even working closely with JAKIM and know much about the Departments' limitations. From the conversation, I could read that Mr Albert is an open minded kind of person and no longer influenced by the old streotyped phobia on Islam. He even know about the Muslim history especially about the Yunan people who travelled to Pattani (Thailand) and later migrated to Malaysia. I feel honoured since my descendant from my mother side was from Yunan. I am the third generation of Tok Guru Tok Bachok who hailed from Yunan, then later travelled to Pattani and finally opened up a 'Pondok" in Bachok, Kelantan. The district of Bachok was named after him.

Mr Albert and I talked about another kind of 'halal' product to be researched upon - the Halal Telecommunication (HT)! When he first mentioned about HT, my mind paused for a moment and seconds later my mind started generating ideas. As an academician/researchers, there are a lot of research that can be conducted in this new area. When we talk about 'halal', we normally think about food or drinks, banking and financial products or services.

Areas of research that can be conducted in HT are, among others,:

- service providers (its investment, ....)
- products/services (internet, sms, etc)
- effects/impacts to users (online gambling, porno, etc)
- Impact to the country's economy, etc.