Vote-Rigging and Shenanigans in Sydney's Khmer community
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 6:57 am
Sydney Cambodians rise from two rigged elections and fornicating monk
Harriet Alexander
9 January 2019 — 12:00am
A series of battles have convulsed Sydney's Cambodian community with allegations of violent monks, a fornicating vice abbot, rigged elections and spying at a Buddhist temple.
The unopposed election of a new president of the Khmer Community of NSW last month brought to a close three years of infighting sparked by two separate events, each of which escalated to the NSW Supreme Court and left the temple hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
The golden gabled Wat Khemarangsaram rises out of the backstreets of Bonnyrigg in Sydney's southwest and has been a focal point for Sydney's Khmer community since emigres from the Pol Pot regime began arriving in the 1980s.
About 4pm in the afternoon of September 19, 2016, its serenity was shattered by the arrival of a woman who agitated for Assistant Abbot Ven Chuon Huot to come out and speak to her.
Davy Chea would later tell the court that she had been the monk's lover for six months, that he had given her cash, promised to leave the vocation to live with her and threatened suicide when she tried to end the relationship.
But his promises had come to naught.
As Ven Chuon Huot bunkered down in his room that afternoon, the commotion attracted the attention of Abbot Long Sakhone, the president of the Cambodian Buddhist Society NSW, Sakal Men, and three monks visiting from Cambodia, and simmering political tensions spilled into the open.
The monks counselled Ven Chuon Huot that he would have to disrobe, but he refused.
Instead, he wrote to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection alleging that the monks had been violent and engaged in sexual activity, and aligned himself with a new candidate to become the next president of the Buddhist society two months later.
Justice John Sackar, who found no basis to the allegations against the monks, would describe the December elections as "a chaotic and crowded affair" and "plagued with irregularities".
More: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/syd ... 50pxn.html
Harriet Alexander
9 January 2019 — 12:00am
A series of battles have convulsed Sydney's Cambodian community with allegations of violent monks, a fornicating vice abbot, rigged elections and spying at a Buddhist temple.
The unopposed election of a new president of the Khmer Community of NSW last month brought to a close three years of infighting sparked by two separate events, each of which escalated to the NSW Supreme Court and left the temple hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
The golden gabled Wat Khemarangsaram rises out of the backstreets of Bonnyrigg in Sydney's southwest and has been a focal point for Sydney's Khmer community since emigres from the Pol Pot regime began arriving in the 1980s.
About 4pm in the afternoon of September 19, 2016, its serenity was shattered by the arrival of a woman who agitated for Assistant Abbot Ven Chuon Huot to come out and speak to her.
Davy Chea would later tell the court that she had been the monk's lover for six months, that he had given her cash, promised to leave the vocation to live with her and threatened suicide when she tried to end the relationship.
But his promises had come to naught.
As Ven Chuon Huot bunkered down in his room that afternoon, the commotion attracted the attention of Abbot Long Sakhone, the president of the Cambodian Buddhist Society NSW, Sakal Men, and three monks visiting from Cambodia, and simmering political tensions spilled into the open.
The monks counselled Ven Chuon Huot that he would have to disrobe, but he refused.
Instead, he wrote to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection alleging that the monks had been violent and engaged in sexual activity, and aligned himself with a new candidate to become the next president of the Buddhist society two months later.
Justice John Sackar, who found no basis to the allegations against the monks, would describe the December elections as "a chaotic and crowded affair" and "plagued with irregularities".
More: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/syd ... 50pxn.html