Get tough with rich monks
Play
Re: “Somdej Chuang must testify in person over car scandal”, National, March 29.
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has done the right thing in denying a request from his hubristic lawyers that the acting Supreme Patriarch be allowed to give only written testimony in the investigation into a Mercedes-Benz being once illegally registered in his name.
It is a stain on society that such a revered and high-ranking monk might have allowed himself to be seduced by materialistic belongings.
Earlier this month Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said the DSI, the Customs Department and the Department of Land Transport would in the next few months conclude their probe into more than 7,000 luxury cars. One wonders how many of these expensive vehicles are held by Thailand’s cash-rich Buddhist monks.
Worse still, some of our “revered” monks have become tools of a political group and are trained to create disturbances. Testifying to this fact were the violent scuffles during a recent protest by monks.
With high-ranking monks having succumbed to materialism and politicisation, Thai Buddhism is in dire straits.
Our condemnation is no longer sufficient to curb the behaviour of clergy who have not only turned away from the Buddha’s teachings but also gone out of their way to commit crimes. These wayward monks must be punished.
Vint Chavala
