October 25, 2011
A member of the hajj pilgrimage monitoring team from the House of Representatives found that a food catering company hired by the Indonesian government served spoiled food to pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
The information was reported on Tuesday by Ahmad Zainuddin, the deputy head of House Commission VIII overseeing religious and social affairs, who flew to Mecca on Oct. 21 with a team of 18.
“There is one catering company that has violated the regulation because they served spoiled food,” Zainuddin told the Jakarta Globe by phone.
“If the caterer doesn’t have any commitments to improve their service, we will ask the government to terminate their contract.”
However, Zainuddin declined to mention the name of the catering company and the number of pilgrims served the bad food, saying he will need to conduct further investigation first.
The House of Representatives sent two teams to Saudi Arabia to monitor this year’s hajj pilgrimage.
The pilgrimage is one of the pillars of Islam and Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, sent 220,000 people to Saudi Arabia this year.
The Indonesian government hires local catering companies to provide food for the pilgrims. The companies were recommended by the Saudi government. Each company is responsible for a maximum of 30,000 meal packages every day.
There have been a number of complaints of spoiled or bad food in recent years. In 2010, more than 100 Indonesian pilgrims suffered from diarrhea after consuming bad food served by one of the caterers.
(according to the JG)
di 25 okt 2011 - 7:08