Bo Bae vendors set up protest market
Many Bo Bae vendors yesterday set up new stalls around a yard in front of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)'s headquarters in protest against its decision to cordon off the footpath where they had operated their stalls for decades.
The BMA has cleared the footpath along Padung Krungkasem canal of hundreds of stalls, which once formed a part of Bo Bae market. The footpath will get a face-lift. "We plan to operate our stalls here from now on," Wanpen Kamrak, one of the Bo Bae vendors, said in front of the BMA headquarters. On the front yard, about 50 vendors also flew banners saying: "We can't bear it any longer. We are starving". Their stalls offered 50 per cent discounts, attracting a number of local people and BMA officials, and under the watchful eye of city-police officers. The BMA has planned to spruce up the city landscape, and the stalls along the Padung Krungkasem Canal will be removed and replaced by flowers and shrubs. Wanpen said the BMA's offer to find new places for the vendors were no good because people rarely shopped there. Another vendor said the BMA suggested he run his stall at a spot in Chatuchak Weekend Market but he rarely made money during his three weeks there. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said he was now determined to join other Bo Bae vendors to operate their stalls in front of the BMA headquarters. Wanpen said her group would not budge if city police officers tried to evacuate them this time. "We will fight to the end," Wanpen said. Responding to the stalls in front of the BMA headquarters, Phra Nakhon District Office's director Rerngsak Horaruang, said he would tell BMA officials not to buy products from the vendors.
Mayuree Sukyingcharoenwong The Nation
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