Banned street vendors vow to fight back
BANGKOK: Vendors in one of Bangkok’s biggest tourist hotspots have vowed to fight regulations preventing them from hawking their wares on the street, arguing that their livelihoods and the city’s unique character were at stake.
Last week city officials imposed a ban on vendors on the pavements of Khao San road, a favourite haunt of backpackers for its bars and cheap hostels, which is also well-known for street stalls selling food, clothes and souvenirs.
Vendors have been restricted to a designated zone, and can only sell their wares from 6 pm to midnight.
Scores of vendors initially ignored the order and staged a protest, saying they had not been consulted or given sufficient notice.
“The government won’t listen to us,” said Yada Pornpetrumpa, president of the Khao San Road Street Vendors’ Association. “But we will protest till someone listens,”
Vendors have sent a petition to Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang and to Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, asking for a reversal of the ban as it hurts their livelihoods, she said.
Authorities said they were bringing order to street stalls throughout the city to make public spaces accessible to more people.
“The new regulations will be strictly enforced,” deputy governor Sakoltee Phattiyakuls aid.
Police officers kept a close watch from one end of the street yesterday and said they would shut down any vendor who defied the order.
The ban is part of a wider effort by the Thai military government, which came to power in a 2014 coup, to impose order in a city famous for its night life and cheap street food.
Authoritieshave also rbeen emoving shanties along the Chao Phraya river to build a promenade, and earlier this year forced out a community of more than 300 people near an old fort.
Civic groups said the evictions mostly targeted poor residents who had little legal recourse, as they had no formal rights to the land.
It has not just been Bangkok: with Asian cities trying to be seen as modern and lure investment, street vendors were now being viewed as a hindrance, and as usurpers of public spaces claimed by formal businesses, residents and pedestrians..
“Vendors are seen as an inconvenience and a safety hazard,” said Sasiwimon Warunsiri at the School of Economics at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
With city officials adamant about enforcing the new regulations, Warunsiri said hawkers were unlikely to get a reprieve.
“Vendors may not have much of a choice,” she said. – Reuters