BUDDHIST COMMUNITY FACING TWO PROBLEMS
Editor: The following is an adaptation of the text of the speech delivered by Bro. Ng Ghin, Secretary General of Cheng Beng Buddhist Society, at the Buddhist Youth Leadership Training Course Graduation Ceremony held on May 27.In recent years, more and more Buddhist organisations are actively involved in social welfare and cultural activities. Many government ministers have on different occasions publicly spoken with appreciation the contributions made by Buddhists in these activities. However, if we take a closer look, we would discover that there are some hidden problems facing the Buddhist community. I shall now deal with two of such problems that deserve our attention.
First, the relationships between Buddhist organisations have not kept pace with their growing involvement in social welfare work which is undertaken to promote the spirit of compassion to benefit the public. However, without a healthy and strong body to provide leadership and co-ordinate welfare work, much effort would be repeated and go to waste.
A good current example is the many fund-raising activities going on all at the same time. It is due to the lack of inter-organisational relationships and co-ordination that it is very difficult for each individual organisation to achieve its fund-raising target. This shortcoming has affected the fund-raising activities of the older Buddhist welfare organisations such as the 29- year old Singapore Buddhist Free Clinic. The clinic’s collection of donations has declined over the last few years and it has gone into the red for the first time in its history. The clinic is pessimistic and expects its collection to decline further. To prevent such an unfortunate situation from reappearing, a well-developed and strong organisations to to lead and co-ordinate the various social welfare works of Buddhist organisations is needed.
Buddhist organisations themselves should on their part not form small groupings just to achieve their own immediate benefits. They should instead consider the broader interest of Buddhism as a whole. We should heed the advice that in unity there is strength. If Buddhist organisations are united, they would be able to muster wider public support and realise their social welfare plans together.
Secondly, the shortage of capable professionals to hold important posts. Buddhist organisations?social welfare activities like setting up old aged homes, clinics and hospitals require the service of many professionals. If Buddhist organisations do not pay attention to human resource training then many important posts would go to the non-Buddhists.
Frankly speaking, the Buddhist Youth Leadership Training Course organised by our society did not receive wide support from the Buddhist circles. There are even those who doubted the motive and ability of the course organisers. Our society’s aim in putting in effort and expenses to organise such a course is to equip Buddhist youths with specialised knowledge and skills so as to enable them to serve the Buddhist community.
It is a contribution our organisation can make towards Buddhism, for protecting Buddhism is the responsibility of all Buddhists, regardless of whether they are lay or monastic. It is absurd to say that important works in the Buddhist community should not be handled by knowledgeable lay Buddhists.
If there are no capable Buddhists to take charge of a project, then the project which was set up with much pain and hard work would end up in the hands of non-Buddhists. Obviously, training suitable personnel is an urgent task at hand for the Buddhist community. There is a Chinese saying that it takes ten years to grow a tree, but this tree will provide shade for the next hundred years.
Similarly, there is a need for us to train the young for the future. In other words, we should train an elite group of Buddhist youths to hold important posts. As to how this could be done, it is a challenge for all of us. The two problems I raised may not be new, but this is the actual state of affairs we face. I hope all concerned Buddhists will pay attention to them.