There's a horrifying story making the rounds right now that I hope can make international news so that the people responsible don't simply disappear into the wealthy-people jungle like tends to be the case here in Thailand.
This time it involves an AIDS clinic, foreign volunteers, massive amounts of donations, and a high-ranking monk at a position called an Abbot.
Phra Bat Nampu Temple is located in Lop Buri and has been the home of what was perceived as great charity toward the ill, most notably in a free clinic for treating people with AIDS that operated off of donations. Things were looking just great until recently, a foreign volunteer who goes only by the nickname of "Leslie" for now, came forward with allegations that when she was working there, new medication had emerged that was actually making patients recover and gave them improved health and shortly thereafter her and her team were threatened, prohibited from further administering this care and while it wasn't directly stated, it is assumed that this is because the sympathy-based donations were declining because the patients were starting to not look horribly ill.
The plot thickens when it was discovered that much of the physical product donations (various goods) were discovered unused at the facility while the temple clinic administrators were constantly claiming they were underfunded and had no resources. IT was also discovered that funds were not used for the clinic but instead were siphoned off into other individuals and a vast expanse of land that was designated for the clinic's use, was instead found to be registered to be owned by the temple's manager.
The main person in the center of all of this is a spiritual leader known as Sakesan “Bee” Subsuebsakun, who is known in spiritual circles as "Bee the Ghost Ambassador." I don't even want to get into all that superstition but there is a lot of belief in ghosts in modern-day Thai Buddhism. Bee has been accused of embezzling funds from the clinic, which he denies, and the Abbot (the head honcho) of the temple Alongkot Ponlamun is believed to be a part of the scheme as well.
Apparently these rather respected long-term monks have been intentionally keeping the AIDS patients of the temple clinic sick on purpose and at first this would normally be dismissed as a wild accusation made by a crazy foreigner (Leslie) but the plot thickens when a Thai doctor who also worked at the clinic as a volunteer corroborated Leslie's story and added more to it.
Respected doctor Jurirat Bowornwattanawong (good luck pronouncing that!) had secured new HIV medication that improved the health of the patients but states that she was told by the Abbot Alongkot requested that they stop administering the medication temporarily because a film crew was coming by soon. The doctor refused and soon after the mostly foreign volunteers that were there on a daily basis (the Thai doctor only stopped by once a month or so) started to be denied entrance to the clinic, had their vehicles vandalized and as Leslie claims, even received death threats. Because of this, the foreign volunteers stopped coming into "work" where they were providing their services for free.
If any of this is true, and it is really shaping up to appear as though it is, can you think of anything more evil? And for it to be carried out by a group of people in religious position that claims that doing no harm is one of the highest tenets of the faith!
Keeping people sick intentionally for the sake of enriching yourself, well, nobody is going to support that unless they work in the pharmaceutical industry.
The Abbot in question announced his resignation yesterday but there is an investigation underway and one of the main things that is necessary to make sure that this investigation actually happens is that people don't forget that it happened. Wealthy and powerful Thai people tend to not get punished in this country because stories just go away magically. We saw this happen with the Red Bull heir who killed a cop while drunk driving, when a wealthy Thai businessman was caught poaching endangered species in national parks, and also whenever a rich person commits manslaughter on the highways in their Mercedes.
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foreign volunteer "Leslie" states she was forced out of the clinic after refusing to stop care that was making the patients "too well."
The rich do not face consequences in this country and this is possibly why people in a position of influence, perhaps such as this Abbot, are so bold in what they do.
It is important that people know about this story, know about Leslie's testimony, and know that it is backed up with local trustworthy Thai testimony as well (why would a respected Thai doctor make this up?) This needs to make international news, get international attention, because that is the only way that anyone is ever going to pay a price for this heinous act.