Since I posted the blog post on his horny PA, there have been quite a few google search on Pang, his PA, the monk himself, leading to this blog. And quite a few of those searches have the term "gay" in them.
Frankly, I dun know any of them personally so I dun know their sexuality. But online netizens seems to think that the monk and his PA was having some sort of affair and watching porn together!
Hahahaha...that is funny indeed!
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The Straits Times
20 July 2008
Enigmatic high-flying monk
Reactions to ex-Ren Ci head Ming Yi's arrest is relatively muted and he still has supporters
By Tan Dawn Wei
It is not every day that you see a monk in his saffron robes standing in the dock in the middle of a courtroom. But there, in a packed District Court 26 last Tuesday, was Singapore's most famous abbot, the Venerable Ming Yi.
Solemn and pensive, he nodded slightly as 10 criminal charges against him were read out in English: for defrauding the Ren Ci Hospital and Medical Centre, forgery and helping to falsify its accounts for a total of $300,000. He broke into a small smile when the deputy public prosecutor tripped over the bail amount, making it sound like it was $201,000 instead of $200,000.
As he strode out of the Subordinate Courts building later, flanked by his black-suited lawyers, the Buddhist monk smiled slightly again at the army of cameramen so eager for a shot of him. He would not answer any of the questions the trailing reporters shot at him but simply said: 'Thank you.'
Since the news broke last November that the authorities were probing the Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre and its founder and former chairman Ming Yi for 'possible irregularities' in its books, the 46-year-old has been keeping an extremely low profile. Home is the Foo Hai Ch'an Monastery in Geylang East, where he has been abbot since 1990.
In 2001, the monastery underwent a major facelift costing $16 million, raised through well-wishers and supporters. It became a Tang-style Zen structure with state-of-the-art facilities, such as two soundproof recording studios. But residents at The Cornwall, an upscale condominium off Holland Road, have also spotted the monk spending nights in an apartment there. The unit belongs in part to him and his monastery.
Unlike the public outrage that greeted former National Kidney Foundation (NKF) chief T.T. Durai in 2005 over the revelations about his pay and extravagant habits, reactions to Ming Yi's arrest and subsequent charges have been muted. This, even when it was reported that a 27-year-old former personal assistant to Ming Yi was charged with having 138 obscene and uncertified films which the authorities had uncovered, mostly from the Cornwall apartment.
Online forum discussions have been limited, with posts ranging from sympathetic to abusive. 'It is not the first time a charity head has got into trouble,' said actor Darren Lim, 34, who first met Ming Yi while preparing for a TV fund-raiser for Ren Ci.
The Chinese-language press received calls from readers after Ming Yi's arrest, saying that he had done much for the sick and the poor. Those who know the monk or had worked with him also declined to speak when approached by The Sunday Times. Calls to several Ren Ci patrons were all not returned.
Loyalty runs deep, it seems. One long-time Ren Ci patron, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Tey, said she had even thought about starting a petition against the allegations lobbied at Ming Yi. 'Till today, we still respect him a lot. It has not shaken us,' said the 50-year-old, who runs her own insurance company with her husband and donates four- to five-figure sums to the hospital yearly.
A former NKF donor, she said she had stopped supporting the foundation in the mid-1990s when she got wind of Durai's first-class travels and swanky hotel stays. While shopping for a new charity, she had heard good things about a monk who, despite coming from a well-to-do family, had sold his house and channelled his money and energy into helping the chronic sick.
Touched by his tale, she and about five friends approached Ming Yi with a proposal to organise a fund-raising charity golf event for Ren Ci. He happily agreed. They managed to raise $300,000 for the little-known organisation at that time. Although some of her friends stopped supporting Ren Ci after Ming Yi's troubles began, Mrs Tey is standing firmly by the monk. 'It's sad and shocking. But I hope he can get through these difficult times,' she said.
SHREWD STUNTMAN
To most Singaporeans, Ming Yi is best known for his feats in five Ren Ci Charity Shows beamed live over television from 2003 to 2007. He abseiled 45 storeys, immersed himself in an ice-filled container, balanced atop a five-storey structure for nearly two hours, walked across parallel beams placed 66 storeys high, and tried to pull himself up 23 storeys using a rope and pulley - all in the name of raising funds for the more than 400 chronic sick and nursing home patients under his care.
Some in the Buddhist community had in fact frowned on his high-profile, daredevil stunts on TV, all performed to teeth-gritting music and watched with bated breath by the nation. 'We don't encourage such practice. It causes fear and that's not the way of the monk,' said a senior abbot who declined to be named.
But his death-defying acts moved TV viewers to flood phone lines with their donations, despite Ren Ci's late entry on the televised charity show scene. Both the NKF Charity Show and the President's Star Charity were launched in 1994, while Ren Ci Charity Show's maiden performance was in 2003.
Ren Ci's telethons have consistently raked in donations of more than $6 million per show every year, with Ming Yi's performances ringing up the most number of calls. The monk clearly knows how to tug at the heart, and purse strings.
'Sometimes, dance and singing acts are not special enough,' he said in 2006 amid public debate over the use of dangerous stunts in charity shows. Despite this high profile, not much is known about his private life. While some journalists say he can come across as glib in interviews - he has an answer to every question - there is little he will let on about his personal matters.
Born Goh Kah Heng, the youngest of four children and the only son of a bank employee and a housewife, he spent weekends at a temple in his teens while his friends were busy with regular adolescent activities. He became a monk at 23, much to the reluctance of his parents.
An old boy of Raffles Institution, he founded Ren Ci after taking over the 174-bed chronic sick unit at the old Woodbridge Hospital in 1994 when he was 33. Those who have met Ren Ci's former chairman and CEO say he hardly fits most people's idea of a typical monk. He has been described as having a sharp mind, quiet charisma and business acumen, and was known to read books on how to be a CEO so that he could run hospitals better.
He built Ren Ci into the second-biggest charity in the health-care sector after the NKF. It has $28.6 million in its coffers. Another un-monk-ish habit: He keeps fit by running and skipping at least three times a week in a gym.
Financial adviser Taserine Chua, 31, who was on the management committee of the National University of Singapore Buddhist Society in 1997, where Ming Yi was spiritual adviser, remembers him as having ambitious plans for Ren Ci Hospital: 'I'm sure there will be disappointment among Singaporeans over the news of his legal troubles. But if he has indeed done something wrong, he will have to answer for it.'
He is no stranger to controversy. Last year, the legitimacy of his PhD qualifications came into question when readers wrote in after a profile of the monk appeared in The Sunday Times. It turned out that the school, Mannin University in Ireland, was not recognised by the Irish education authorities.
In his defence, Ming Yi said that he had earned his doctorate through distance learning, but did not check if the university was recognised. He has a master's degree in health-care management from the University of Wales. He also quelled talk that his pay cheque from Ren Ci was more than $10,000 a month, saying that he was a volunteer and drew only an allowance from the charity for the four years when his monastery was under renovation. It is not known how much this allowance was.
He stepped down from Ren Ci and five other organisations last week. The president of the Singapore Buddhist Federation, the Venerable Kwang Sheng, 56, said that since the federation was just a grouping of Buddhist institutions in Singapore, it would not act against Ming Yi if he were found guilty. 'He has contributed a lot. But let this be a warning that, as charities, we have to take care of the public's interest,' he said.
Mr Ben Lee, 43, honorary secretary of the Amitabha Buddhist Society, also hopes the accusations against Ming Yi will not affect people's perception of Buddhism. 'Buddhism has nothing to do with these allegations,' he said.
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