{"id":5192,"date":"2010-02-26T01:03:35","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T17:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=5192"},"modified":"2010-02-26T12:44:27","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T04:44:27","slug":"operation-bogus-bust-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/02\/operation-bogus-bust-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Bogus Bust (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"bust\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please feel free to…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Send this link https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/02\/<\/a>operation-bogus-bust-part-2<\/a> to share this article with your friends.
\n2.<\/strong> Download the above A3 poster at <\/span><\/span>http:\/\/moonpointer.com\/downloads\/bustbw.pdf<\/a> (Colour version at <\/span><\/span>http:\/\/moonpointer.com\/downloads\/bustcolor.pdf<\/a>) for pasting at hotspots and giving to shopowners where bogus monastics frequent.
\n3.<\/strong> Download the above as <\/span><\/span>A5 flyers at http:\/\/moonpointer.com\/downloads\/bustflyer.pdf<\/a> to circulate at the same hotspots.<\/span><\/span>
\n4.<\/strong> Translate the poster to other languages applicable for the Singapore context.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Below is a related unpublished letter to share, that was sent to press.<\/em><\/span>
\n
\nMore Policing Against Bogus Monastics Needed<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the complaints of various friends, the appearance of bogus monastics or so-called \u2018Buddhist monks and nuns (in white)\u2019 is clearly still a recurring problem in Singapore. They thrive partly due to the still prevalent ignorance of the public that they are unholy confidence tricksters in disguise. As such, it would be good if the Singapore Police Force (SPF) regularly reminds the public via various media that such criminals should be reported and not supported.<\/p>\n

This is especially so as under the Miscellaneous Offences Act, \u2018anyone who collects alms or solicits charitable contributions under false pretences can be fined up to $2,000 or jailed up to three months, or both.\u2019 Educational posters created by SPF in various languages put up at public places of worship and housing estates could prove useful in stamping out bogus monastics too.<\/p>\n

In the past, bogus monastics usually stood stationary at busy public places to solicit for money (instead of food or basic non-monetary daily requisites, which is what genuine monastics would seek locally). However, after some legal scares, these criminals are much smarter nowadays, by being mobile with their bowls, moving from place to place. With this change in their methodology, it is much harder to apprehend them, even when the police are called for.<\/p>\n

If the police wish to more conscientiously trace and weed out these increasingly cunning illegal elements, they ought to respond to calls upon sightings of bogus monastics by arriving swiftly in plain clothes to tail bogus monastics to their headquarters. From personal experience a few years back, I once called the police for investigating the identities of two bogus monastics, who were standing outside the popular temple at Waterloo Street. To my surprise, they had informers. Upon sighting two uniformed policemen some fifty metres away, the \u2018monks\u2019 fled, while the police arrived puzzled at the empty crime scene.<\/p>\n

Related Article:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The below article was published in the January-March 2010 issue
\nof Nanyang Buddhist (Singapore Buddhist Federation\u2019s quarterly magazine)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Operation Bogus Bust (Part 1)<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2009\/09\/bust-the-bogus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please feel free to… 1. Send this link https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/02\/operation-bogus-bust-part-2 to share this article with your friends. 2. Download the above…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[436,73,83],"class_list":["post-5192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happenings","tag-lying","tag-monastics","tag-stealing","wpcat-268-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}