Thailand has thrown away a very good opportunity, amidst all the crises, to demonstrate to the world that the country has humanity, said Assistant Professor Piti Srisaengnam, a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of Chulalongkorn University.

Writing on Facebook today, he described the Thai government’s decision not to allow a cruise ship to dock at Laem Chabang deep-sea port in Chon Buri province as “cruel and inhumane”, after the ship had already been turned away from the Philippines, Japan and Guam.

“Just try to imagine how desperate the people on board are, after the ship has been at sea for more than 20 days” he said.

The professor said that the Government could have allowed the ship to dock and then quarantined the over 2,000 passengers and crew at the Royal Thai Navy’s base, where Thai health officials could screen them and observe their condition.

“As a humanitarian matter, we must help those in distress, not push them away,” said Dr. Piti, noting that Thailand ranks as the world’s 6th best public health system, scoring an average of 75.7 out of 100 scores in various categories, with the lowest score of 56.4 in the category of economic and political risk.

“Why not choose the humanitarian option for the sake of people who are in distress? If they (the passengers and crew members) can come ashore, how impressed would they be with Thailand.  They will remember Thailand for forever because we took care of them when they were in trouble.  We would have been their true friends,” Dr. Piti wrote.

“Unfortunately, we are too late. We have thrown the opportunity into the sea.  Humans are civilized animals because we know how to help one another.”