On the face of it, Indonesia's presidential election campaign is so polite that even a debate between candidates has been ruled out in case they criticise each other.
Behind the scenes though, supporters and opponents of the three leading contenders are using both traditional and hi-tech smear tactics in the run-up to the country's first direct presidential poll on July 5.
The election commission has set out tough rules which forbid candidates from going negative. Even a planned televised debate – a first for Indonesia whose parliament previously picked presidents – has been dropped in favour of a more sedate "dialogue".
"Indonesia has never had the [debate] experience," said commission member Valina Singka Subekti recently. She said the dialogue format was created to avoid "any of the candidates discrediting the other." Javanese traditionally set great score on courtesy and more than half the voters live on Indonesia's main island.
But while the candidates sound statesmanlike in public, there's scope for dirty tricks on the sidelines.
Video compact discs with hidden messages discrediting former military chief Wiranto are being given away in three cities, Friday's Jakarta Post reported. It said the VCDs begin with a recording of a concert, which is interrupted by images of the fatal shooting of demonstrators by security forces in Jakarta in 1998 and 1999.
A message implores viewers: "Prosecute General Wiranto quickly, he is responsible for human riots violations in the [two] incidents." Wiranto, who was armed forces chief at the time, denies responsibility for the killings. He is standing for the Golkar party.
The ex-general has also accused unspecified political opponents of being behind the issuance in East Timor of a warrant for his arrest. Wiranto, who denies wrongdoing, recently embraced East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao during a meeting aimed at defusing the allegations.
Another ex-general, the current frontrunner Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also complains of smear tactics. Last week authorities announced that after a two-year hiatus they are resuming an investigation into a 1996 army-backed attack on supporters of then-opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Megawati is now seeking a second presidential term but faces a tough fight against the two ex-generals.
Yudhoyono was the Jakarta military's chief of staff at the time of the bloody attack but has not in the past been implicated in it. Investigators denied political motives but Yudhoyono was unconvinced. "I know it is due to orders from the central power," he was quoted by the Post as saying.
Mobile phone text messages play a big part in spreading rumours. In April Yudhoyono complained of false rumours that he had remarried with a Catholic wife, that the US Central Intelligence Agency was backing him and that he had received 50 million dollars in US funding.
Hadar Gumay, of the Center for Electoral Reform, said such campaigning was "deplorable" but would have only a limited impact. "How many people got those VCDs and have mobile phones? I think people are clearly engaged in mudslinging but the methods are not smart and sophisticated so it likely won't be successful," he told AFP.
Megawati was the target of an edict issued by several Islamic clerics, telling Muslims not to vote for a female candidate. The clerics, members in East Java of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), endorsed Wiranto. His campaign team distanced itself from the edict, as did NU leaders.
Islamic legislators in 1999 blocked Megawati's first bid for the presidency, partly on the grounds that a woman should not lead the world's largest Muslim-populated nation. She lost to Abdurraham Wahid and became his vice president.