- Dormant law resurrected to punish the street food vendor
The street food vendor, arrested by the Keselwatte Police for quoting an exorbitant price for a ‘Koththu Roti’ and then who chased away the tourist in a very aggressive manner was produced before a judge at the Magistrates Court yesterday.
He was granted release on a cash bail of Rs. 50,000 and a surety bail of Rs. 1 million yesterday.
However, his offense according to unconfirmed reports indicate that he was charged for violating the Consumer Affairs Authority’s (CAA) regulation of not displaying the menu along with its price list and not charged for being arrogant and rude as many thought it to be.
The resurrecting of a dormant law to charge the street food vendor adds another layer of complexity to this episode.
It is evident now, that the neglected law was enforced to single out the street vendor, when perhaps several other food stalls on that very same street as his, may have been in violation of the very same CAA rule.
Overall, the arbitrary and selective application of dormant laws for convenience by the government undermines the principles of justice, fairness, and transparency, posing a significant risk to public trust in the legal system and the government’s ability to govern effectively.
Officials from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Tourism perhaps expressed discontent when a video posted by social media influencer Emeka Iwueze gained traction across various social media platforms.
In order to salvage their reputation and address public concerns, perhaps they may have felt compelled to take action, possibly viewing the need for a deterrent to bolster their efforts in promoting tourism and attracting essential foreign currency inflows.
But the real danger of resurrecting dormant laws to serve such needs could pose a huge danger to the general public.
Just imagine a dormant law such as ‘women are not permitted in Sri Lanka to purchase alcohol or work in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol’ is enforced in full when your wife, sister or daughter is out partying with friends on a ladies’ night?
Sri Lanka as a nation is famously known to forget incidents as such as this street food vendor’s episode and perhaps in another couple of days’ time this will in all probability be forgotten.
But the all-important question is the learnings from this incident and what best could be done to strike a peaceful chord between both street food sellers, vendors and the consumers in the future.
What will the Minister of Tourism do from here onwards?
Will he enact a system to protect the people who voted him into power, or will he too forget all about this incident and react once again when the next incident takes place?
