Prayut gifted an unholy row
T he path to the clergy’s top post is strewn with spikes. Therefore to become the country’s most senior monk, the 20th supreme patriarch, Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangalacharn must accept the reality that his appointment is far from secure.
Even before news broke that Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangalacharn won the Sangha Supreme Council’s nomination to head the country’s Buddhist governing body, resistance to him taking the helm had built up a powerful head of steam.
The contention has centred around his apparent close association with Wat Dhammakaya, whose abbot, Phra Dhammachayo, has been embroiled in dubious legal issues.
Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangalacharn himself also has questions hanging over him in connection with allegations of luxury car tax evasion.
His fiercest critics, including activist Phra Buddha Isara, have amassed some 300,000 signatures of people claiming to oppose the nomination of the 90-year-old abbot of Wat Pak Nam Phasi Charoen, known as Somdet Chuang. Somdet is the highest title bestowed upon a monk.
His opponents insist a supreme patriarch must have an untainted track record, as by position — and with a virtuous mind — he must attend to the monarch and the royal family in the service of the dhamma and lead in the propagation of the religion.
Among his most vocal critics is Paisal Phuechmongkol, the former senator and legal specialist, who maintained the secret vote in the Sangha Supreme Council on Jan 5 to nominate Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangalacharn was a legal misstep and must be declared invalid.
He cites a stipulation in the Sangha Act which requires the prime minister to initiate the nomination process, meaning Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha — who holds the highest administrative power under Section 44 of the interim constitution — must have a say over who should make the cut.
However, the Jan 5 vote resulted in the premier having no role in the decision.
Mr Paisal dismissed arguments that the premier just assumes the role of a “messenger” in the supreme patriarch nomination. He explained the prime minister does more than pass the nomination to the palace for endorsement. In fact, he should have a say in the nomination, in addition to deciding when or whether the nomination should be forwarded for the royal signature.
Supporters of Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangalacharn insist the prime minister has no authority to tamper with the decision — and as red-shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan has pointed out, he has no right to act in any way which could lead or mislead popular opinion over the supreme patriarch nomination issue.
However, Gen Prayut and his deputy Wissanu Krua-ngam have made it clear that any matter which is “problematic” has no place on the agenda of issues to be conveyed to His Majesty the King.
They added that as long as “problems” remain unresolved, the nomination, once passed to the prime minister, can go nowhere. Such was the message he tried to highlight and reiterate during media interviews he gave three days in a row, but which the reporters had missed.
Mr Wissanu says no deadline exists to dictate how long the prime minister can keep the nomination before presenting it to the King for consideration. The process could be quick or slow, he said, noting that previous appointments of a supreme patriarch were known to have taken six to eight months, or even longer.
In fact, the country was without a supreme patriarch for 37 years during the reigns of King Mongkut and King Chulalongkorn, before the eighth supreme patriarch was finally installed.