Fear and fury is gripping the clergy. Following the arrest and defrocking of high-profile monks for temple corruption, temples nationwide are fearful of financial inspections while monks are up in arms against the idea of prohibiting them from receiving money from the laity.
The trigger was an order from the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) to its provincial branches nationwide to report back which temples use merit-making money as temple common funds and which temples allow monks to keep the money as their own.
Sanitsuda Ekachai is former editorial pages editor, Bangkok Post.
