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The Vicious Cycle Is Once Again Repeating Itself Here in Thailand

#CNNiReport
The Vicious Cycle Is Once Again Repeating Itself Here in Thailand

We Thais forget easily, forgive easily but more importantly we are gullible and impatient.  Our opinions are easily swayed by the media or by anyone else who has the ability to mislead us.  This characteristic can be compared to dropping a lighted match onto a pile of straw.

I have lived long enough to watch several remakes of popular classic plays over the years.

I have also witnessed repeated military coups in Thailand being staged based on such classic accusations as corruption, usurping the monarchy, and the needed change in government.  These coups are as familiar to the Thai people as the passing of the seasons.  An election is held, the winning party comes to power only to be supplanted by a military coup later on based on whatever accusation it wants to make at the time.  This cycle of events has occurred so frequently that Thailand ranks one of the top five countries on earth for having the most number of military coups.  

Thais forget easily, forgive easily but more importantly they are gullible and impatient. 

All it takes is a piece of misleading news being repeatedly printed or broadcasted and it will work like a lighted match being dropped onto a pile of straw.  People are ready to scream for help and hope for a superhero to come to their aid.  Little do they realize that “the person lighting the fire and the person putting out the fire may just be the same one”.

The case of the Dhammakaya Temple has become a new tragedy which repeats itself every decade or so ever since the temple was built fifty years ago.

The temple has been accused of being Communists, of taking advantage of certain rice farmers, of its Abbot taking wrongful land ownership, of being disobedient to the previous Supreme Patriarch’s letter, of showing supernormal powers, and most recently in 2017 of accepting stolen money, of money laundering, of teaching the wrong doctrine, and of breaking the law as described in more than 300 citations which occur within the span of just a few days.  This last incident is worth the Guinness book of world records’ attention for certain.   

The media began spreading news of these charges as cooked up and dictated by the government in a big way.  This is then followed by the government writing new laws in order to prosecute the Dhammakaya Temple and its Abbot.  But when nothing works, the government resorts to Article 44 whereby whoever disobeying its commands can be arrested for breaking the law.  It can do this because it is holding absolute power in its hand.

Later, different cohorts come out to spread more and more news, each piece more dramatic than the last.  These are the people well known in their fields and are more highly respected by the Thais than their own parents.

And as I fear, the same vicious cycle in Thailand is beginning to repeat itself once again.

But the way to deal with fear is to face the truth.

It is not enough that the government, the media, certain celebrities and even certain monks of the same belief system are all doing their best to spread false news about the Dhammakaya Temple until it becomes a hot hit item, when all else fails because things are not happening fast enough for them, the government decides to deploy Article 44 which gives it absolute power.

Unbelievably, more than 5,000 policemen and soldiers are deployed for the purpose.

Nobody knows how long it will take to persecute and prosecute the Dhammakaya Temple.  But at the moment, nobody is allowed to enter its premises.  No food is allowed to pass its doors despite the fact there are close to 10,000 people inside the temple.  Internet and phone connections have been cut.  The cutting off of water and electricity is being threatened.  One cannot help but wonder if this entire operation is for the purpose of arresting just one monk or it is about mass killing.

Huge manpower and massive funds are being used.

As I said before, Thai people are gullible and impatient.  They like to see things happen and end quickly, but they care very little about the consequences.  It is the reason why the country has fallen behind other countries in the region.  They see only what is in front of them.  They are incapable of seeing or planning anything long-term for the country.  In growing bananas, a developed country knows to plant the trees, nurture them, water them and wait for them to bear fruits.  But in Thailand, as soon as a banana tree reaches a certain height, its leaves are being removed for different uses.  Therefore, it can never grow large enough to bear fruits.   

Now, let us try to look at the facts about the Dhammakaya Temple.

All of the media that come out to spread false news about the temple are the same old faces and names such as Nation, Amarin, T News, Naewnar.  These media belong to the same political party, believe me, for they have never had anything good to say about the Dhammakaya Temple.  Unbiased media publish both blames and praises about the Dhammakaya Temple.  However, the blames that are published must be read with a grain of salt and compared with other sources.  (Of late, I have stopped reading news from these sources altogether.)

Frankly, actors, singers and song writers who earn their living by keeping people entertained with their acting or their singing can hardly be expected to understand the Lord Buddha’s Teachings, since such forms of entertainment are deemed by the Lord Buddha to induce sense –desire, hence, must be abstained from.  And yet they talk about being a true monk, about abstaining from sense-desire, about fundamental Buddhism, and about what the Lord Buddha teaches.  Moreover, they often quote a letter from the previous Supreme Patriarch of Thailand to show that the Abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya is no longer a Buddhist monk and therefore, what he teaches goes against the teachings of every Buddhist School.  As a result, they must stop any food from entering the temple for the thousands of monks, novice monks and staff.  Worst of all, they accuse the temple which has existed for close to half a century to be a den of thieves.

Let me just ask all of these persons some simple questions.  Have they ever entered the monkhood?  If so, how long did their monkhood last?  Have they ever read or studied the Tipitaka or did they get all of their information from someone else?  A Buddhist monk does not lose his monkhood just because someone says so.  Aside from singing, song writing and acting, how many times a year do they attend the temple and a Dhamma lecture?  If the answer is a few times, then it would behoove them to keep their mouth shut.  They may be good at what they do, but that does not mean that they will be good at everything or know everything there is to know.  Four persons come out with four different opinions.  Won’t it be better for them to study a certain topic well enough before making any comments about it?  Personally, I find their comments to be quite annoying.

For the teachers and the other persons who support the use of Article 44 against the Abbot and the temple, they are just as blameworthy.  They want democracy and yet they have no idea that no democratic government on earth approves of the use of Article 44.

The government tries to justify its actions by saying that it is simply implementing the law.  Frankly, if I had the same amount of power as these officials, I would have liked to deal with them in the same way in that I would use Article 44 on them at the drop of a hat.  If that should happen, I’d like to know if they would still think that I was simply implementing the law.  It just does not do to use it so often and it would behoove the officials to think how they would like Article 44 to be used against them.

The ultimate disgrace happened yesterday when the government deployed Article 44 to remove the Director of the National Office of Buddhism so that he could be replaced by a DSI officer who had worked on the case concerning some antique cars and the former acting Supreme Patriarch, Somdet Chuang.  One cannot help but wonder how a police officer can be good at catching thieves while being well-versed about all matters concerning the Sangha.  This is simply ridiculous.

As soon as the new man assumes the new position, the government yet again deploys the law to start working for it by telling the ecclesiastical regional provincial governors to forbid the monks from different provinces to come and join forces with the Dhammakaya Temple.  It remains to be seen if the order will be obeyed.  For certain, the monks in Chiangmai have a different idea of their own.

Let us calmly look now at the root cause of this entire problem.  Since Thais forget easily and do not look at anything in a penetrating manner, I would like to take the liberty to explain things as they actually are and how to resolve the situation which is far superior to using Article 44.

****This entire situation is about informing the Abbot that he is being charged with the crime of receiving stolen money and money laundering.  This case has nothing to do with any other monks or the temple.  It concerns the Abbot alone.

So far, legally the case has not gotten beyond this initial step.  It has not yet been decided whether or not the Abbot is guilty.  Moreover, this case cannot proceed until the case against Mr. Supachai is underway to prove whether or not he is guilty as charged.  Only then can the case against the Abbot proceed legally (who knows how many more years it will take?).

When it was time for DSI to inform the Abbot of the charge, the ailing Abbot asked DSI to come and inform him of the charge at the temple as he was ready to fight the case.  However, DSI prosecutors said that it was illegal to do so and that the Abbot had to come to hear the charge against him at DSI headquarters only.  At the time, both the Deputy Director General and the former Commissioner General said that the charge can be heard anywhere.  (It makes one wonder which law book these DSI prosecutors were referring to).  Personally, I believe that the Abbot will fight the case in the same way that he had done in another case ten years ago and won.  

But DSI’s actions concerning this case are very suspicious.  For example, it does not give credit to the physicians’ report on the Abbot’s state of health and the fact that he has been afflicted with some serious health conditions.  DSI refuses to send its physicians to verify the reports given by the Abbot’s physicians.  But instead, it goes ahead and asks the court to issue an arrest warrant for the Abbot.  When asked in an interview why it did not send its physicians to check the Abbot’s health at the temple, DSI answered that the time for such action was long past.  The simple fact is that DSI refused to inform the Abbot of the charge against him at the temple but wanted him to come and hear the charge at DSI headquarters because DSI wanted to arrest the Abbot and disrobe him…Now, would you comply with DSI if you were the Abbot?  This should answer the question so frequently asked, “If he is not guilty, why should he be afraid of anything?”

Then DSI submitted the case to the court but the court attorneys told DSI to get more information from the accused person…It means that the evidence against the case was extremely weak with hardly anything to substantiate it.  Still, DSI resubmitted the case later on only to be told the same thing.

And it was these events which led to what is happening now.

DSI, policemen and soldiers launch a thorough search of the temple, ask for more arrest warrants, threaten the temple’s members and lay devotees in every possible way, deploying psychological warfare to force the lay devotees to abandon the temple.  However, the strategy backfires in that more and more lay devotees show up to protect their temple and their faith.  And DSI responds by using Article 44 on one monk and one temple!!!!  Has DSI forgotten the fact that this situation is all about informing the Abbot that he is being charged for receiving stolen money and money laundering?  Has DSI forgotten the fact that this is not a war?

The temple allows thousands of DSI officers and policemen and a certain number of police dogs to carry out a thorough search of the temple.  (I must say that of all the searching parties, it’s the dogs that are the cutest.  It’s reputed that each dog costs around six million baht.)  The search is carried out day and night and without advanced warning in every imaginable place including the so-called secret tunnel and chamber as frequently suggested by Mr. Mano.  And yet nothing suspicious has been found and the search parties have to sign a form to verify that no drugs, weapons or anything illegal have been found inside the temple grounds.  The whole thing should have been over then, right?  Wrong!

The next day, the monks and temple members are told to vacate the temple so that DSI can do another search.  This is in complete disagreement with the promise given earlier by DSI.  Actually, it is the DSI officials, policemen and soldiers who should be vacating the temple grounds.  After all, the temple belongs to the monks, the temple members and its lay devotees, since it has been built by them.

It has now been eleven days that the monks and all concerned are standing staunch to protect their temple and Buddhism with their lives.  But the government accuses them of breaking the law.

The government mobilizes more troops against the temple and its members.  Why it is doing this is beyond me, since the methodology employed is completely wrong.

Both the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army and the Commissioner General are in agreement that they do not want any violence to erupt.  And the whole business is once again dumped on the lap of DSI.  The question is: will it be able to handle it?

It is hard to tell how this incident will conclude but both sides are sure to meet with defeat.  Thailand will be like an already sick person being afflicted with unforeseen and deleterious conditions.  This already frail society is close to coming apart altogether.  Nothing can return to where it once was, be it sovereignty, religion or society.

If one is to uphold the law rather than using it for one’s ill-gotten gain and victory,

then it is now time for the government to beat a retreat and return to the use of the rule of law as applied in times of peace.  It will take decades for the case to go through all three court systems.  After all, this is such a trivial case considering all the other serious cases being processed by the court at the moment.

As far as the charges against the Abbot for displaying supernormal powers and for disobeying the previous Supreme Patriarch’s letter, the charges have already been dropped as judged by the Dhamma-Vinaya and the Sangha Law years ago.  Just accept this fact and read up on it for those who are still referring to these charges by way of attacking the Abbot.

If I were to choose between the rule of law and Buddhism, I would choose the latter.

Politics and the rule of law are constantly changing, but not so with Buddhism which is the principal root of the Thai society.

I wish the whole thing would stop right now, for I am terribly sick and tired of this vicious cycle here in Thailand!

Written in Thai by Mr. Pornchai on February 26, 2017 and published on the website: http://winne.ws/n13568