Thailand was deemed the bad guy in the eyes of the rest of the world and the Western media after the end of a three-nation meeting in Putrajaya last Wednesday. While host Malaysia and Indonesia agreed in the urgent talks to shelter 7,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshi boat people migrants for one year to give other countries time to work on repatriation and resettlement, Thailand did not join in on offers of temporary sanctuary.
The country expected criticism for not showing mercy to the boat people. It came - and from every direction, both inside and outside the country. The kingdom must be wrong for failing to commit to specific numbers as everyone moves to solve the boat refugee problem.
Thailand is familiar with refugee issues from long before the current wave of Rohingya from Myanmar and people from Bangladesh landed on its shores or hid in its southern jungles. It received Cambodians seeking shelter from the murderous reign of the Khmer Rouge, Laotians escaping the secret war of the CIA, waves of Vietnamese boat people after the end of the war in the 1970s, followed by an influx of people fleeing fighting between soldiers and armed ethnic groups in Myanmar.
It took many years to close the eastern and northeastern border refugee camps - but the problems are far from over. At least 100,000 people - termed "displaced persons" by the government and refugees by the United Nations and non-governmental agencies - remain in nine camps in eight provinces on the western frontier.
Whatever they are called is not important. What no one wants to admit is those camps and the people they contain could be there forever because the Myanmar government is reluctant to take them back. Third countries which pressured Thailand to adopt a humanitarian policy when the areas along the Myanmar border were plagued by armed conflict are not interested in resettling them any more.
Malaysia and Indonesia have reasons to give the boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh a temporary place to stay. As Muslim nations, they are obligated to help their Muslim compatriots from other countries.
The US set the tone for other countries to take in some of the boat people. That is a sound gesture from Washington and perfectly fits its strategy to retain influence in this region.
But the best message came from Australia. It was not about Canberra shutting the door on the migrants. Instead, it was about the way the issue should be addressed.
"Australia will do absolutely nothing that gives any encouragement to anyone to think they can get on a boat, that they can work with people smugglers to start a new life," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
It is a similar line that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has fashioned for Thailand as he repeatedly says the boat people problem should be tackled at its root causes.
Everybody knows why they are leaving their countries, but nobody is clear on the best measures to stop them.
Setting up refugee camps will lure more migrants onto boats - and the problem will go on and on. They can be resettled, but the question is, where? They can be repatriated, but trying to convince a government to take back people it no longer wants is even more difficult.
However, as the host of an international meeting to address the boat people crisis on Friday, Thailand must have something more to offer other than what Gen Prayut has indicated so far. "We will be making expansions to the holding areas to afford the migrants better living conditions," he said last Friday.
The international community should not be worried about the tough position from Thailand.
The country will certainly toe the line on the boat people saga. The difference is, this time, it will do so at its own pace.
Saritdet Marukatat is digital media news editor, Bangkok Post.