Defiant Dhammakaya monks have declared that they will not leave their protest site at Klong Luang market as demanded by the Department of Special Investigation and are ready to get arrested by the authorities.
The new unofficial spokesman of Dhammakaya monks, Phra Palad Seksan Auttathamo, said Monday that the protesting monks had resorted to civil disobedience and appealed to the government to scrap Section 44 of the interim constitution.
Claiming that all the monks and lay followers of Dhammakaya cult had been protesting peacefully at Klong Luang market, he wondered why the authorities had to apply pressure on them to leave the market as if they were southern insurgents.
Phra Palad Seksant admitted that he was not aware of the charges against him, but he would report himself to the police as summonsed and was willing to be detained but would not leave the monkhood or forced to be defrocked.
The monk urged officials not to check the IDs of monks to determine whether they are real or fake monks, claiming that all the monks at the temple are real “otherwise they will not be able to say the prayers.”
