Police collect evidence of alleged temple fund embezzlement at Wat Sa Ket on May 25, 2018. (Photo by Apichart Jinakul)A large majority of people say they want monastic organisations, rules and regulations to be reformed in the wake of the temple fund embezzlement scandals involving numerous high-ranking monks, according to an opinion survey by the National Institute for Development Administration, or Nida Poll. The poll was conducted on June 13-14 on 1,250 people of various levels of education and occupations throughout the country to guage "people's faith in Buddhist monks and monastic organisations in the present situation". Asked whether they think monastic organisations, rules, regulations and administration as well as the management of temple property and code of monastic disciplines should undergo reforms, 85.28% of the respondents said "yes"; 12.96% said "no", believing that most problems in the monastic circle are caused by outsiders; and 1.76% were uncertain or had no comment. On their faith in monastic organisations, 63.36% said they still believe in them because corruption is committed by individuals, not the entire monastic circle; 35.52% said the embezzlement scandals have caused them to lose faith in the organisations; and 0.48% were uncertain or had no comment.

Source: Bangkok Post June 17, 2018 02:37 UTC