Denver-area Thai immigrants reacted to the military coup in their homeland Tuesday with a mixture of surprise, anger and nonchalance.
Eed Cefkin, president of the Thai Cultural Connection and a member of the Denver Thai Lions Club, said she was “shocked” by the coup, which she learned about after a friend called her Tuesday morning.
“I just hope it doesn’t go on too long, because it would affect the economy, (and) it’s not convenient for so many people,” said Cefkin, 47. “I’m afraid another person will step in, and it will be chaos.”
Cefkin and other local Thai immigrants woke up Tuesday to news about the coup.
“It was good because the people don’t like the prime minister (Thaksin Shinawatra); he is too corrupt,” said Vic Chinsomboon, 68, owner of the Tuk Tuk Thai chain of restaurants in the metro area. “It’s not surprising at all. Thailand has coups. I always think there will be coups. It never stops.”
Chinsomboon, who left the country 36 years ago, has many relatives in Thailand, and he hoped to chat with some of them soon. Tuesday afternoon, he said, it was hard to get through on the telephone.
Karuna Wiwattanakantang, a doctoral student in economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, heard about the coup Tuesday morning in a call from her brother, who did manage to connect.
“There was a rumor about this, but we didn’t think it was going to happen,” she said. “It’s definitely upsetting. This means that our democracy is stepping back. I’m not happy with the prime minister. He’s a businessman, and he became the prime minister with corruption, but the people did elect him.”
Wiwattanakantang, who has relatives in Thailand, said she isn’t too worried about violence, at least not yet. Her biggest concern was the strength of Thailand’s government.
“We want democracy to solve the problems” with corrupt officials, she said. “That’s why I’m so upset.”
Thai immigrant Fred Skul, 50, of Longmont, said he had expected a coup, given discontent with Thaksin, the prime minister. But if the authority of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej were to be challenged, things would be different, he said, adding that most Thais revere the nation’s monarch.
“If the king were taken out,” he said, “there would be massive bloodshed.”
Staff writer Douglas Brown can be reached at 303-954-1395 or djbrown@denverpost.com.
