Buddhists protest gov't surveillance

By Kim Rahn

The nation’s largest Buddhist sect has called on the government to apologize for illegally monitoring the order’s top-ranking monks.

Officials of the Jogye Order said Tuesday President Lee Myung-bak should apologize for the “undemocratic” surveillance on Buddhist figures, asking the prosecution to thoroughly investigate the case.

The protest came after prosecutors recently confirmed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) illegally monitored high-ranking Buddhist figures, along with politicians and citizens critical of the government.

“We regard this as an attempt to suppress Buddhism and if it is true, President Lee should apologize and step down. We call for the government to explain who and why they monitored. If it attempts to cover up the case, 2 million Buddhists will not tolerate the infraction,” the order said in a statement during a media briefing in central Seoul.

Officials of the sect said a prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office recently called Ven. Boseon and said they found a document about monitoring him while looking into documents about Ven. Jigwan.

Ven. Boseon has been the chairman of the Jogye Order’s legislative body since 2008 and Ven. Jigwan was the chief of the order between 2005 and 2009 and died in January.

“After Lee who is a Christian, became president, policymakers showed unfair treatment toward Buddhism. We launched a pan-national protest against such treatment in August 2008, and there was a rumor at that time about the government’s surveillance of high-profile Buddhist monks. The rumor was proven true,” an official said.

But prosecutors said no Buddhist monks other than Ven. Boseon were monitored and it was just a report about what he was doing at that time.

But the Jogye Order official said “only Ven. Boseon” is unreliable.

“During that time in 2008, some people trailed Ven. Jigwan and we tried to catch them but were unable to do so. Now we think those people were from the PMO. Also some police officers traced bank accounts of high-ranking monks and checked personal information of the order’s workers by breaking into our intranet. It shows the government’s despotism,” he said.

In the meantime, comedienne Kim Mi-wha said Monday she was also informed by the prosecution that they found documents about her.

On her Twitter, she said, “I got an email from the probe team that they found a document about my being sacked from a radio program at MBC in 2009. I have lots to say, but I think we are now living in a society where justice is missing. I just wait for the day when truth is respected.”

In April last year, Kim quit a program she had hosted for eight years. The comedienne, who often made comments critical of the government, said at that time the broadcaster had been urging her to quit.

She also claimed earlier this year that an employee of a spy agency approached her in May 2010 and said “VIP” (meaning the President) was not happy with her. Regarding the incident MBC said there was no political motivation in changing the emcee of the program.