If three senior ministers are charged with corruption simultaneously, the government they serve must be suffering a crisis of credibility. It is the same for the country's highest governing body of monastic affairs, the Sangha Supreme Council (SSC), whose three "cabinet" members, along with other two monks, are accused of siphoning and laundering temple money to enrich themselves.
While the three members have lost their membership of the SSC -- which compares its governing roles to those of a cabinet government -- the clergy has increasingly been losing public trust over these and other previous corruption allegations involving temple money and assets. Unless the SSC's role and the regulations of temple fund management are revamped, corruption within the faith-based system will continue.
The public has become discontent with the many scandals involving monks and abbots. Money-related allegations have become the most scandalous area.
