Order on case to be reviewed
THE OFFICE of the Attorney-General (OAG) is preparing to review an order in 2006 to drop an embezzlement case against the abbot of Dhammakaya Temple, Phra Dhammachayo. The order was issued by Pachara Yutitham-damrong, who was attorney-general at that time
OAG deputy spokesman Kosonlavat Intujanyong will today ask Attorney-General Trakul Winitnaiyapak for permission to re-check the case against Phra Dhammachayo.
“After we look into the report, we will find out the reason,” Kosonlavat said yesterday.
The move follows a recent uproar over Phra Dhammachayo, who the chairman of a recently established National Reform Council (NRC) committee says should have been defrocked in response to a statement of the Supreme Patriarch in 1999. It has also been revealed that Phra Dhammachayo received more than Bt300 million from the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative.
The Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO)has agreed to act on the NRC panel’s proposal that it take civil action against people found to have been involved in embezzlement at the cooperative.
“We will urgently look into the matter,” AMLO secretary-general Seehanat Prayoonrat said. However, he said the investigation would take some time.
Meanwhile, a surveyby Maejo Poll found that inappropriate behaviour by monks had affected people’s faith in Buddhism. Of 1,250 respondents, 60 per cent said bad m Several groups of Buddhists and monks have hit out at the NRC committee on the protection of Buddhism.
The Network of Northeastern Exemplary Buddhist Youths, the Network of Buddhists in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific Islands, and a centre promoting morality, ethics and the security of the nation, the Buddhist faith and the monarchy yesterday demanded that the NRC committee be scrapped.
“Or else, we will stage a rally,” they said via a joint statement.
At the same time, the Assembly of Thai Monks in the United States released a statement to condemn the NRC committee and Or Noi Temple’s abbot, Phra Buddha Isara.
They demanded that the NRC committee be abolished and that Paiboon Nititawan, the chair of the committee, as well as Phra Buddha Isara stop offending the Sangha Supreme Council (SSC) and other entities carrying out the duty of the Supreme Patriarch.
Both Paiboon and Phra Buddha Isara have publicly questioned the SSC for allowing Phra Dhammchayo to stay on as a monk. Both believe Phra Dhammchayo should have already been automatically defrocked in line with a statement of the late Supreme Patriarch.
Monks had undermined the faith, 21 per cent mentioned distortion of Buddha’s teachings, while 18 per cent cited commercialisation of Buddhism.
