By ERIC ELLIS
The Age
Thailand has found much-needed stability under the Abhisit Government but maintaining it is a problem.
IT IS - apparently more than most new years - the season to note anniversaries; 240 years since Cook's Endeavour arrived on our shores, 200 years of Peugeot, 75 years of Elvis and 20 years since Homer, Bart and Mr Burns began piling up profits for Rupert Murdoch.
It was eight years ago this month that Guantanamo incarcerated its first suspected Muslim terrorist and, in torture of a different kind, 35 years ago that Japan inflicted Hello Kitty on an unsuspecting world.
Troubled Thailand, in many ways South-East Asia's political and economic barometer, has been noting two more sombre anniversaries. It's been five years since the tsunami devastated its coast, killing 5000 people and crippling much of its huge tourist industry. And it's been a year since the aristocratic 45-year-old Abhisit Vejjajiva became Prime Minister, which is 11 months longer than most people thought he would last.
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