Jet set monk Wirapol arrested
After spending a few years abroad and finally the United States, the “Jetset monk” is back in Thailand. He was arrested in the United States in 2016 and extradited to Thailand last year. Not a smart move by this monk to flee to a country where there is a possibility of deportation.
This Wirapol Sukphol remains a remarkable person by being put on a video on You Tube in his monk's robe on board a private plane in 2013.
He was found guilty of fraud, money laundering and computer fraud. In addition, the allegations that he had sexual relations with several women and even with a minor 14-year-old girl. The latter is charged to him by the court as child abuse and child abduction, ruling on October 17.
Money meant for temple improvements and Buddhist sculptures were partly embezzled for personal use in cars and luxury goods. Between 2009 and 2011, he bought no fewer than 22 Mercedes cars worth 95 million baht. What story would Wirapol have come up with without anyone asking questions!
However, 29 people have filed a lawsuit against him for cheating and the court ordered Wirapol to repay 28,6 million baht. There is also a claim of 43,5 million baht in an earlier case law.
The Ratchada Criminal Court in Bangkok sentenced him to 114 years in prison on Thursday, although it is legally technically not possible to exceed 20 years in prison. In court Thursday, a smiling Wirapol was accompanied by about 10 followers. He told them not to make a big deal out of it.
Quote of monk Wirapol: “If you can accept prison, it is not a punishment, but if you cannot accept this, 1 day of prison is equal to 1000 years!”
Critics say Wirapol is an extreme example of a wider crisis in Thai Buddhism, which has been marginalized by a shortage of monks and a more secular society.
Source: Pattaya Mail
Shortage of monks, Louis? There are 300.000! The problem is this. In the past, the village community, the secular society, had something to say about the temples and the monks. People knew what was happening and they had a certain influence. Call it Buddhist democracy. As the Buddha arranged: each temple was a self-contained community that arranged everything among itself, often by consensus.
Now there is a lot of gossip, that monk has a wife, that monk steals money, etc. In the village where I used to live you heard that about almost every monk. But the laity, the people, are now powerless. Complaining doesn't help, people are also afraid. Everything is now arranged from above and abuses are often covered with the cloak of love. I once saw a circular to the villagers in which a monk was accused. I asked why they didn't go to the authorities. Doesn't help, I'm afraid.
The influence of secular society, the Buddhist laity, must increase.
I already wrote this 6 years ago: is the Sangha (monasticism) doomed? In those 6 years it has only gotten worse.
https://www.thailandblog.nl/boeddhisme/sangha/
The Chulalongkorn Sangha law of 1902 apparently did not work!
Or Wirapol is apparently above this law.
In 1941 or so there was a reasonably democratic Sangha law, in which the State withdrew, in 1962 under the dictator Sarit Thanarat a new law that is still largely in force and in which the Buddhist community and the State were intimately linked and everything was top-down was arranged. State and Buddhism are highly dependent on each other in Thailand and that should not be the case.
Why shouldn't that be? Since 1962, all successive Thai governments have had the opportunity to reinstate the old, 'reasonably democratic' 1941 law. None of them did.
So you could also conclude that the current law reflects the opinion of the majority of the Thai population (or that it will be the worst for the population) and then this law from 1962 is the most democratic.