The elite needed the king’s sacred aura to legitimise their supremacy, and the leading members of the establishment had to make a constant effort to make Bhumibol believe they worshipped him, and to convince their inferiors in the network that their instructions were imbued with royal authority. But once “king’s men” like Prem (and more recently, Anand Panyarachun and Prawit Wongsuwan) managed to cloak themselves in royal barami, they have had considerable latitude to use the establishment network to advance their own interests, whether or not these corresponded with Bhumibol’s. Usually their interests were aligned, but sometimes they were not, particularly with respect to the succession. Nobody knows whether instructions genuinely come from the king. This issue was discussed in one of the most illuminating of all the secret U.S. cables obtained by WikiLeaks, 09BANGKOK2967: