The Problem of Thai Buddhist Monk Being Limited of Political Right

Abstract

Thai Buddhist monks and legal rights for election in Thailand are interwoven. In the past, government handled problems of the Buddhist clergy. For example, the government was the one who augmented the Buddhist clergy leader, scrutinized the Buddhist discipline of the monks, and arrested and forced fake monks to leave their monkhood. Nowadays, politicians have role to control activities of the Buddhist clergy; for example, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers are the one who directly take care of National Office of Buddhism; Culture Minister is also in charge of Department of Religion Affairs. However, Thai Buddhist monks are not allowed to participate in all political matters, even voting during election. This is different from other religious monks like, for example, Christian priests or Islamic priests, who have right to vote. It makes politicians feel courteous toward religious priests and authority. On the other hand, voting right of Thai Buddhist monks is neglected; this makes politician not courteous and listening to Thai monks as they have no power in controlling and scrutinizing politicians through election. Using voting right is different from becoming a politician. If a Thai Buddhist monk wants to become Member of Parliament, he first needs to leave the Buddhist monkhood. In Thailand, other religious priests are allow to have rights as ordinary Thai people should have like, for example, right to vote, right to hold Identification Card, etc. But why are Thai Buddhist monks not given the same right as Thai citizen should be.