Vietnamese Security Minister's Parody Eats Yield For IDR 29 Million Ala 'Salt Bea,' Noodle Seller Imprisoned For 5 Years

Illustration (Photo by Emiliano Bar on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - A noodle seller in Vietnam who parodikan one of the country's most powerful ministers has been jailed for five and a half years. The man named Bui Tuan Lam is accused of anti-state propaganda. Bui Tuan Lam became famous when he posted a video in 2021 imitating a typical London-based high-end restaurant owner, Salt Bae. A minister had previously been filmed eating gold leaf-coated steak in Salt Bae's video. The Vietnamese government is very intolerant of dissent. The trial and sentence of the 39-year-old man in the Danang court only took one day. "He had to undergo a probationary period four years after his release," Bui Tuan's lawyer told the BBC, reported Thursday, May 25. In the video, Bui Tuan Lam applies onions on top of his noodle soup and imitates the original Turkish celebrity chef Nusret GöKçE - who often sprinkles salt on steak in a theatrical way. A few days earlier, footage of Vietnam's Minister of Public Security to Lam eating steak for more than $2.000 or Rp. 29 million at a chef's restaurant had caused a stir on the internet. Many Vietnamese people note the discrepancy of a high-ranking communist official who eats dishes that cost more than his monthly salary, and right after he visited Karl Marx's grave in London. At that time the police interrogated Bui Tuan Lam and closed his noodle shop which had become very popular for several days. He was arrested last September and has been detained since then. Bui Tuan Lam has been a political activist for nearly 10 years, which cost him his job in Ho Chi Minh City and forced him to sell noodles in Danang, his hometown. With his passport confiscated, he has not been able to leave Vietnam since 2014. But this is the first time the authorities have prosecuted him. The indictment accused him of posting 19 videos on Facebook and 25 on YouTube that "affected people's trust in the leadership of the country". Although the famous Salt Bae parody was not mentioned, the shame posed by the Vietnamese government was widely seen as the reason for his arrest. "Although the allegations about Facebook's previous posts, nothing can be fooled," said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. "The Ministry of Public Security is taking revenge on Bui Tuan Lam for daring to mock the Minister who fed their steak to Lam. The green onion video went viral, and made people in Vietnam happy, once again showing the creativity of the democratic movement that the authorities are trying to extinguish with violence and false beliefs." While in prison, Bui Tuan Lam was denied access to a lawyer for up to two weeks before his trial. His wife Le Thi Thanh Lam was not allowed to attend. He told BBC Vietnam service that he and their three daughters have only been allowed to meet him once since his arrest, and then for only 10 minutes. "We can't talk much, but my husband sang a song with our daughter before saying goodbye. My husband was the one who told me about the trial, otherwise I wouldn't know." Three days ago, Le Thi Thanh Lam received a call from a foreigner who wanted to deliver a letter from her husband. She had written a message to him on a piece of paper and threw it on the ground in the hope that someone would pick it up and send it to him. "In a letter my husband wrote in January, he said he would not pleaded guilty because he believed in what he was fighting for. He encouraged us to be brave and said it would be a miracle if he received the piece of paper," he told the BBC. "No matter how many years the court will punish him, I completely reject him because my husband is innocent of anything. That he was jailed, for a day, a year or 10 years, is a crime." There are currently at least 170 people in prison in Vietnam for expressing views that are unacceptable to communist parties, or doing something that is considered a threat to the monopoly of party rule. Last month, dissident blogger Duong Van Thai, who is recognized as a refugee by the United Nations, was kidnapped in Thailand. It is widely believed to have been carried out by Vietnamese state agents, who are also behind similar kidnappings in other countries. climate activist Nguy Thi Khanh, Dang Dinh Bach, Mai Phan Loi and Bach Hung Duong, who have campaigned against Vietnam's dependence on coal power, have also been convicted of tax evasion and jailed in recent months, a punishment rarely given to other tax evaders.