Ever since the opening of the new night market, authorities have been making a big push to get ‘illegal’ vendors — i.e. those who weren’t lucky enough to nab a market stall — off the downtown streets.
The big problem is that the market only has enough space for 1600 vendors when there’s an estimated 6000 vendors currently operating in downtown Yangon. Those who didn’t or couldn’t manage to get a place in the market were told to sell on side streets. As you can imagine, this has caused a lot of anger on the part of the vendors.
Last Friday, over 200 vendors protested the unfair new policies. The Irrawaddy reports that at a press conference last week, Yangon Region Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein announced that they would create new ‘hawker centers’ for the remaining street vendors.
However, the renovations can’t come quickly enough.
In a post and accompanying video that’s now gone viral, a street vendor was physically assaulted by a group of YCDC employees for operating on one of the now forbidden downtown streets.
The post was originally uploaded by user Yin Chan Min, who wrote, “This was someone who was making a livelihood and trying to earn some money. Instead of helping clean up, they punched him three times, kicked the items he was selling, and swore at him.”
Judging by the photos, the man sold bird food that people could buy by the plate and feed to the flocks of pigeons that congregate downtown.
In the video, other citizens complain to a senior YDCD official about the horrific incident.
“He’s my father’s age,” one visibly furious woman tells the camera. “Why didn’t they just confiscate his items?”
The person shooting the video notes that the employees in the video aren’t the same one who assaulted the man.
“This is something that never should’ve happened in the first place. They have no intention to do anything about what happened. They talk about democracy, but is this the kind of democracy they’re referring to? Is punching someone in the face democracy?” the camera operator says.
The post also pointed out that there was a nearby stand that didn’t get harrassed because they had the means to bribe the officials.
“The way they treat poor citizens is terrible. He only had a small stall so they treated him like this. The big wet thar dote htoe stand next to him had the money to pay them off, so they didn’t do anything to their customers.”
The comments were a mix of people who were outraged and some who tried to explain that the man was still technically breaking the law.
“They’ve already been told that they can’t sell on the streets and that if they do, their items will be confiscated. If they [the vendors] accept this law, then there wouldn’t be any issue. At the same time, if you don’t treat them properly, then there will be problems,” writes one user.
Another user called the government a string of expletives that we can’t reprint, so feel free to use your imagination.
Look — yes, technically the man was breaking the law. However, they shouldn’t have attacked him, especially when he was just trying to make an honest living. Additionally, like the people in the video pointed out, there’s no reason why the authorities couldn’t have just told him that he can’t operate there or confiscate his items.
This was an excessive response to a small misdemeanor, and we hope the people responsible receive the appropriate punishment. Oh, and that the government works out this night market/street vendor mess ASAP.
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