Bangkok
Post | 2021- 11-05 A video
showing a powerful Vietnamese official enjoying a bite of steak smothered in
gold leaf at a luxury London restaurant has sparked online anger in the
Southeast Asian country, where the average person earns a few dollars a day. To Lam,
minister of public security, whose agency deals with the monitoring of dissent
and surveillance of activists in the authoritarian state, was seen tucking into
the hunk of meat at Nusr-Et Steakhouse in the wealthy area of Knightsbridge. Nusr-Et,
named after Turkish chef Nusret Gokce, known to his nearly 40 million Instagram
followers as Salt Bae, serves up steaks wrapped in edible 24-carat gold leaf,
reportedly costing more than $1,000. David
Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Campbell, and now the 64-year-old Lam, have
been among the visitors to the steakhouse's branches across the world. The clip
of the Vietnamese politician, which was originally posted by the restaurant
before being removed, had spread across Tiktok and Facebook in Vietnam by
Friday. Many of
those posting were angry about the decadence on display while the country
struggles in the aftermath of a devastating wave of Covid-19 that has cost
countless jobs and caused the heaviest contraction in Vietnam's GDP on record. "People
are facing extreme difficulties due to the pandemic, but (officials) are
enjoying themselves in the manner of world-class celebrities," wrote Pham Viet
Duc on Facebook. "The
government has always complained of financial difficulties yet they steal
people's money for this luxury life as if there is no tomorrow," he said. Others
posted pictures of poor children in Vietnam's most deprived regions in comments
about the clip. "It's
only by accident that people saw this video, but they have always been spending
money in this way or a thousand times more", said Tommy Lee on Facebook. The
average Vietnamese citizen earned a monthly income of around $184 in 2020,
according to the country's General Statistics Office. It is not
clear exactly when the video was filmed, but Lam was in Britain for the COP26
climate conference and met the British interior minister on Monday. Lam, a
member of Vietnam's powerful 18-strong politburo, has been public security
minister since 2016 and has taken a hard line on human rights movements in the
communist country. Three
years ago, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was also criticised for eating at
a branch of the same restaurant group in Turkey.
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