Equally, there is no prospect that the Habibie-led regime or any alternative capitalist government will do anything else but safeguard the key business interests tied up in the Suharto network, whatever cosmetic measures may be taken against individual members of the Suharto family. In the first place, all of the leading figures in the Habibie cabinet and the military, including Habibie, Wiranto and economics minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita, have personal fortunes closely interlocked with those of the Suharto group. Habibie has been like a son to Suharto since the 1950s, and a senior government minister since 1978. Its 80 companies are involved in chemicals, construction, real estate, transport and communications. Two of its central figures, Ginandjar, re-appointed as coordinating minister for the economy, finance and industry, and Hartoto Sastrosoernarto, coordinating minister for development and national reform, are known to have large family fortunes arising from their terms in office.
Similar ties exist throughout the military and the bourgeois opposition.
General Electric and Mission Energy of the United States, and Mitsui of Japan are major partners in the venture. At the same time, Prabowo's father, Professor Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, an economics adviser to both Sukarno and Suharto, is a member of Amien Rais's opposition Peoples' Council. These links are only the tip of an iceberg. Every armed forces commander operates as a business chief, both on his own behalf and that of his military unit. The military has been engaged in commercial activities since the early 1950s, primarily to raise extra-budgetary revenue for equipment, as well as for personal and political gain.