Business tycoons who own big hotels are restricting at least 28 restaurants owned by locals on Ngapali Beach in Arakan from selling food to tourists according to local sources.
Daw Ma Khaing, owner of Ngapali Bar in Mya Pyin village said: “We are facing difficult times. If we have to close our restaurants, we will be jobless and our whole families will suffer. We have no other livelihood at this moment.”
Local families from the Mya Pyin quarter and the Loonthar quarter have been surviving for many years by running a number of small restaurants on Ngapali Beach.
Daw Ma Khaing said that previously there had been no such prohibitions on selling food and as they had no jobs in the rainy season prohibiting them from selling food just as the winter tourist season was about to start would only increase their troubles.
The big hotels are mostly owned by the outsiders and a lot of farmland was confiscated for the construction of the hotel buildings. Having lost their land many local families started restaurants so that they could survive.
Ko Tun Tun, the owner of Sunset View restaurant, said: “We believe that it will be difficult for tourists without the small restaurants, so we should be allowed to run the businesses. But yes, I agree that the restaurants should be clean and hygienic,”
His comment is significant as the hotel owners always allege that the restaurants do not maintain cleanliness. The tourists, who are staying in the hotels, may get ill after consuming dirty food from the restaurants and then the hotel managements will responsible for that, pointed out a hotel owners’ representative.
Of course, Daw Ma Khaing denied the allegation and argued that their restaurants were clean. She insisted that the tourists liked their food because it is fresh and clean.
Now the restaurant owners are planning to meet the hotels' management to resolve the matter. They have also approached the local authorities about the problem.
Narinjara News tried to get feedback from the hotels' management and from the local authorities, but they did not respond to us.
Meanwhile, the Mya Pyin village headman, U Myin Zaw, aid that he hoped that the issue would be resolved soon because nobody wants to see the villagers starve due to the closure of the beach restaurants.
