It's All In The Family

In an interview at the State Palace, Habibie told TIME he will not cover up for his former mentor. But he has neither frozen the family's holdings nor followed up in any meaningful way. The man in daily charge of the investigation, Attorney General Ghalib, a three-star general in the Indonesian military, told TIME before its story appeared that he had found no evidence that his former supreme commander wrongly acquired state assets. Ghalib has been moving slowly, and some of his staffers fear his efforts are not serious.

A genuine investigation will probably have to await a new government. The June 7 parliamentary election, to be followed by a presidential vote in November, could change the political equation substantially. But Suharto has at least one strong legal shield: the presidential decrees that laid the foundation for Suharto Inc. were each carefully approved by his rubber-stamp parliament. Moreover, Jakarta has a statute of limitations on most offenses that would exclude crimes committed before 1981. For Suharto of Indonesia, that--along with $9 billion in an Austrian bank--should offer considerable comfort in retirement.