Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto ’s push to reorganise Southeast Asia’s largest economy around a stronger, more interventionist state has put him increasingly at odds, analysts say, with the country’s so-called Nine Dragons. Known locally as Sembilan Naga, the label is a loose shorthand for some of Indonesia’s richest tycoon families – many of them Chinese Indonesian – with interests spanning banking, tobacco, property, palm oil, mining and consumer goods. It has never referred to a formally confirmed group but is widely used in public discussion of powerful conglomerates associated with business empires such as Djarum, Salim Group, Lippo Group, Golden Agri-Resources, Barito Pacific and Agung Sedayu. “Prabowo may not mention names, but there’s no mistake he’s taking potshots at the dragons,” said Made Supriatma, a visiting fellow in the Indonesia Studies Programme at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, whose research focuses on Indonesian state bureaucracy. Indonesia’s so-called Nine Dragons have interests spanning banking, tobacco, property, palm oil, mining and consumer goods.