THE BOOZE IS PART OF GENERAL DECLINE

One in 10 monks and novices is a drug addict. If you are not shocked by
this report, you are not alone.

Our holy men already have more than their share of our sinful world if we
are to believe the endless stream of scandals involving monks. Booze. Sex.
Lies. Corruption. Murder. And now drugs. So what's new?Manop Polpairin, a
Buddhist authority at the Religious Affairs Department, announced this week
that about 10% of monks and novices nationwide are addicted to drugs, and
senior monks are all too willing to pretend that the problem does not exist.

That bit about the elders' lethargy isn't surprising either. We can almost
predict how they will respond to Mr Manop's statement:"There are good and
bad in all communities, and the monks' community is no exception. There are
only a few rogue monks, however, compared to the majority of good monks."If
that sounds familiar, that's because that is the elders' standard reply to
every scandal involving monks.

Mr Manop said senior monks turn a blind eye because they want to protect
the faith. If that's what senior monks really said, they weren't telling
the truth.

What monks want to protect isn't the faith. It's the temple donations which
they consider their own. In short, greed made them lie.

It's the same reason monks are so against the ordination of Bhikkhuni, or
female clergy. They use every possible orthodox excuse not to revive the
Bhikkhuni order. Why are they so afraid of having female monks as their
peers? It's not just a matter of gender bias. It's a fear of losing
power-and losing donations.

When greed is the crux of the matter, Mr Manop's suggestion that the clergy
screen new monks more strictly won't be of any help. Not that it's not
sound advice. But monks won't go along with it because the more ordinations
they perform, the more the money that comes in. So why put a lid on
it?According to the Vinaya, or the disciplines set by the Buddha, a
preceptor must make sure that those who seek ordination must be free and
morally ready. The preceptor must coach apprentice monks for at least five
years so that they can live a spiritual life independently without fail. If
five years is not enough, the preceptor must continue the training until
the junior monks are ready to leave.

How are things here now? Well, you pay, you get ordained, you leave the
next day, and no one will raise an eyebrow. That's why many criminals and
drug addicts use the saffron robes as a haven.

The fact that clergy won't shape up doesn't mean that change isn't coming.
Many new Buddhist groups, be they Santi Asoke or Dhammakaya, screen their
monks very strictly, knowing that disciplined monks can draw followers amid
the general frustration with the clergy. More new religious groups will do
the same.

But the role of ordination as a cultural rite of passage and as a means of
social mobility cannot be dismissed.

In our society, where class differences are immense and legal control is
weak, temporal ordination has served the Thais well for a long time. It has
equipped the majority poor young men with both moral and formal education
to improve their lives.

So let's not throw away the baby with the bath water. Our challenge is how
to preserve the contribution made by temporal ordination while improving on
the screening and religious training for monks with life-time commitment.
And how to extend this same benefit to women.

If the clergy won't budge, new reformist Buddhist groups will arise to take
up the challenge. That way, the clergy will soon find out that power alone
isn't enough for them to survive in today's fiercely-contested faith market.