Re-imagining Malaysia: a postliberal halal strategy?

Lever, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2188-8518 (2016) Re-imagining Malaysia: a postliberal halal strategy? In: Halal Matters: Islam, Politics and Markets in Global Perspective. Routledge, London, pp. 19-37. ISBN 9781138812758 (hardback); 9781315746128 (ebook)

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Abstract

This chapter examines the ongoing attempt to position Malaysia as a major player in the global halal market by inserting hegemonic claims into the transnational spaces where these markets operate. It traces the origins of postliberal halal strategy through the development of a hegemonic ethnocratic state regime that emerged after Malaya gained independence from Britain in 1957. The chapter explores the process through which Malaysia is operationalizing this strategy by inserting new hegemonic claims into transnational space. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the Malaysian state maintained hegemony through a distinctive brand of Islamic nationalism. From 2008 until 2010, Malaysia worked in partnership with the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to develop a global standard through the International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHIA). The OIC's Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) has also been working to develop halal standards for over three decades and for most of this period it was also against stunning.