OPINION Thailand scores
THE 12 YOUNG footballers and their coach remain trapped in the Thailand cave, but at least we’re all breathing easier now.
The search for them came to an exultant end on Monday when rescue workers found them safe inside Tham Luang Cave in Chiang Rai.
The 13 hadn’t seen the outside world or another human being in 10 days, having been trapped in the cave by floodwaters.
As news broke of their discovery, there was a sense that the entire populace joined in spontaneous celebration, a sudden loud roar erupting as if Thailand had just won the World Cup.
The search had been gruelling, beset by heavy rain and muddy, fast-moving floodwaters.
Thais across the country had been following the mission’s progress since last Saturday, when word first spread that the young footballers were missing inside the rapidly flooding cave.
As crises often do, this harrowing drama had the effect of unifying all Thais, as people around the planet looked on with sympathy. Though much difficulty remains ahead in the group’s extraction from the still-inundated cave, this crisis has calmed considerably.
DEEPEST thanks go to the foreign experts who joined in the operation and have helped deliver us to this point.
They came from the US, Britain, Belgium, Australia, China and other countries because they cared and they knew their expertise might make a difference. It did.
We are grateful, too, that national-level politicians largely left the operation to the local authorities and their foreign helpers.
While Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha paid a visit to the site, he made no attempt to seize the limelight or make political hay of a situation.
He let Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osattanakorn keep doing the talking on TV, realising that his was a steadying presence.
News reporters covering the crisis generally behaved as well, though some have been accused of sensationalism.
Those at the scene rode a rollercoaster more than most, following soldiers and police up and down the mountain above the cave as they hunted for alternative entranceways.
The scene outside the cave was something to behold, with hundreds of personnel from various agencies doing whatever they could to assist.
They, too, are heroes in this story. – The Nation, Thailand