It certainly didn't come out of the blue. Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva had in fact hinted on several occasions that he was drawing up a "road map" that would propose a political settlement in parallel with "security solutions". But when the proposed "peace pact" did come, it carried a paradox: His opponents were pacified. His supporters were frustrated, even upset.
But, to be sure, Abhisit's dramatic announcement of his "road map" on television on Monday night was anything but unconditional.
In fact, if you read between the lines, he could easily wriggle out of the November 14 election deadline if parts of his five-point national reconciliation conditions aren't met by the red shirts.
In other words, his dual-track proposed solution to the country's most serious crisis may be called off any minute if Abhisit can claim that his opponents are trying to prolong the protest - or if the red-shirts should come up with some counter conditions, including the crucial amnesty for the protest leaders now facing serious criminal charges of terrorism and undermining the monarchy.
Abhisit has made it clear that amnesty is out of the question - and that a written truce agreement wasn't necessary "since I already made my position abundantly clear on the air".
He didn't actually say take it or leave it in so many words. But the main obstacles may be in the fine print of his five-point national reconciliation conditions.
The first few points on the monarchy, national reform, and the media's free but constructive role - in the general and deliberately ambiguous language that he used in his brief television appearance - may not raise immediate controversies. Conflicting views will arise, but those issues can be glossed over for now because of the urgency of the prevailing situation.
But the premier's conditions on setting up an independent tribunal to investigate the serious criminal charges (terrorism and violence against soldiers and protesters), as well as the proposed constitutional amendments, could prove highly tricky.
Some of the questions that may still haunt and throw up roadblocks against the smooth implementation of the road map:
Does the PM intend to pursue the probes into all the allegations related to the armed terrorists accused of having fired at soldiers and protesters in a series of violent shoot-outs?
Does he still want a referendum on constitutional amendments?
Hovering over this political landscape is the uncertainty over the premier's own Democrat Party's future. Will the Constitutional Court rule to disband his party - the same way the Thai Rak Thai, People Power, and Chart Thai Parties were dissolved for having broken the election laws?
And if the Democrat Party is banned, will Abhisit and all the other executive members of the party be banned from politics for five years - the same treatment bestowed upon the leading members of the other parties?
Timing plays a decisive role here too. Will the court's decision on the future of the Democrats come before or after the proposed November 14 election date?
Nobody - not even Abhisit himself - is quite sure what the definitive answers to all these questions are for the time being. But he knows that he will have to fight one crisis at a time. But what matters most before embarking upon the next battle head-on is to make absolutely sure that he can pacify his foes without appeasing them.
More importantly, Abhisit can frustrate his supporters but he can't afford to upset them to the point of turning them into his new enemies.
The yellow shirts and "multicoloureds" have already accused him of selling out to the reds by agreeing to a new election before the end of the year while getting no assurance of a peaceful transition.
He doesn't need to be reminded that the next political crisis is just around the corner.