Vietnamese noodle vendor arrested for impersonating ‘salt bae’

• Mustafa Margadi

  Southeast Asia Correspondent

It was just a joke. But the Vietnamese police saw it very differently. Bui Tuan Lam, a 38-year-old noodle seller and activist, is now behind bars. He had uploaded a video in which he dropped spring onions from his hands and let them slide down his forearm, before they fell into the noodle soup.

Bui criticized Vietnam’s public security minister. In November last year, during a work visit, he dined at the very expensive Nusr-et restaurant in London. It is run by the so called salt bae, the Turkish internet celebrity who finishes his steaks dipped in gold leaf by dripping salt down his forearm.

The minister has been beset by criticism from Vietnamese activists. The steaks at this restaurant cost more than the monthly salary of a Vietnamese cabinet member. Photos of the golden steak-eating minister were shared on social media with critical comments such as: “Vietnam is still poor, but the minister is so luxurious that he can enjoy this kind of extravagance.”

But Bui Tuan Lam’s video apparently went too far for the Vietnamese government. ‘Bae Onion Leaf‘, as he calls himself in the video, was arrested for violating Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, according to police. It describes the ban on “creating, keeping and distributing materials that are against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”.

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch is outraged by Bui’s arrest. “Making fun of someone is a legitimate way to express yourself and should not be considered a crime.”

For HRW, this shows how badly the one-party regime in Vietnam can handle criticism. “Vietnamese authorities routinely define any comment they dislike as ‘anti-state propaganda’. This makes the Vietnamese government one of the most sensitive in the world when it comes to public criticism.”

According to various human rights groups, there are currently between 150 and 300 political prisoners in Vietnam. If convicted under Article 117 for his prank, Bui Tuan Lam could face a prison term of 5 to 20 years.