NOVEMBER 17, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 45 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK

Monky Business
To save its reputation, Thailand's clergy needs urgent reform

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Other Buddhist monks in Thailand have been known to slip out of their temples for an evening of carousing in karaoke bars by disguising themselves with hats, wigs or sunglasses. But Phra Khru showed more panache: He donned the uniform of a senior army officer on his way to a tryst with a woman friend. And it wasn't just any old get-up from an army-navy store. Phra Khru, 43, appropriated the name and persona of a well-connected colonel in the special forces. Small wonder the Thai authorities came down hard, charging the monk last week with impersonating an officer. That could mean several years in jail.

The incident, clandestinely captured by a TV station, would be comical if it weren't so sad. Some 90% of the 60 million Thais are Buddhists, and monks are among the nation's most respected citizens. But a minority regularly abuse this reverence by behaving in very unmonkish ways — accumulating expensive cars, breaking their celibacy vows or even engaging in fraud. It has been a particularly bad month for monks. Phra Khru's antics aside, newspaper readers have been startled by pictures of abbots in handcuffs, accused of embezzling money from their monasteries. Another report recounts the seduction of temple boys by a group of homosexual monks. "It looks as if Buddhism's decline is irreversible," lamented one editorial.

That may be an exaggeration, as the vast majority of Thailand's 300,000 monks keep their vows and perform irreplaceable good works ranging from spiritual guidance to hospice care and drug-detoxification programs. But there is little doubt that greater effort is needed to curb wayward clerics — by both secular and religious authorities. Because of Buddhism's central importance in national life, the state has long been reluctant to act against errant monks until they have been defrocked by the Buddhist hierarchy. (Phra Khru would likely have escaped arrest had he impersonated a less prominent officer.) Police should not hesitate to crack down on anyone who breaks the law, monk or layperson. Of course, frequenting bars and having sex do not fall into this category. Rather, the police should take swift and decisive action against such offenses as harboring criminals, dealing drugs and swindling people.

Ultimately, the clergy must reform itself to arrest the decline in its reputation. Most members of the Sangha Supreme Council, Thailand's top Buddhist authority, are over 70. The body needs to be reinvigorated with younger and more energetic members. That could mean amending the 1962 Sangha Act, under which only high-ranking monks can be appointed. The religious leadership should also institute more transparent mechanisms to investigate abuses and discipline wayward monks. That would highlight its reformist determination and boost its credibility and prestige.

Above all, the clergy must redouble its efforts to adhere to the moral precepts that underpin its role as a paragon in society. True, monks' vows do not include one of poverty. Still, why do so many abbots need to drive around in Mercedes 500 SELs? Society's growing materialism is no excuse to join the bandwagon. Indeed, money-worship only highlights the need for clerics to remind ordinary folk, via personal example, that there are other, less tangible riches in life. Thailand's troubled monkhood needs to go back to basics.

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