Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Less than a week before the election that will make or break their respective political careers, Indonesia's top leaders were forced to unite yesterday at celebrations to mark the 63rd birthday of the country's police force.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his deputy, Jusuf Kalla, have played an uneasy dance over recent weeks as they competed with each other for voters' attention.
But with the presidential polls to be held next Wednesday, when the two men will go head-to-head with former leader Megawati Sukarnoputri for the right to run the country until 2014, the pair were forced on to the stage together one last time.
In recent weeks their only joint public appearances have been at a series of tepid nationally televised debates, where they engaged in mutual back-slapping apparently inspired by fear of a voter backlash.
Although there has been low-level sniping on the hustings about which of the two men might claim the greater credit for their government's achievements over the past five years, there has been little chance for the elder statesman to publicly outplay his offsider.
At yesterday's ceremony in Jakarta, Dr Yudhoyono swung the attention of all present towards next week's vote. In the days leading up to the election, the President warned, police should be especially careful to keep the peace.
"Security should be done in a persuasive, not repressive, way," he said. "Increase co-ordination and co-operation with every element of the nation so that all can create an atmosphere that is safe and peaceful."
Only in critical situations, he added, should repressive force be used – although, he quickly admitted, the presidential election was one such period when police should be prepared to be "firmer" than usual.
The election campaign appears to have left ordinary voters unexcited at its outcome – perhaps because they largely believe Dr Yudhoyono and his running mate, former central bank governor Boediono, will sail through in a single round.
At a campaign appearance late on Tuesday by Ms Megawati and her offsider, retired general Prabowo Subianto, thousands of supporters were already leaving the stadium by the time Ms Megawati took the podium to speak.
One of the few sparks in recent days has been a faintly animated exchange between Dr Boediono and General Prabowo during their vice-presidential televised debate.
Dr Boediono, a slightly bookish and generally soft-spoken and retiring character, accused his opponent of "offering dreams" for suggesting that 15 trillion rupiah ($1.8 billion) in foreign debt commitments could be re-channelled into a health insurance program by 2012.
The Megawati-Prabowo team has pitched itself as the champion of the vast Indonesian mass of ordinary poor, although this could still prove to be an ineffective strategy.
Rhetoric aside, neither has any real experience of poverty or track record of fighting it – rather, they both come from the super-elite that since national independence has tended towards protecting its own privileges.
In any case, Dr Boediono told General Prabowo, his dream of foreign debt refinancing was impractical.
"I don't think that we can multiply our budget by a factor of two or three," said the former economics professor at Gadjah Mada University, in the central Java city of Yogyakarta. "This is the reality of the world, which we have to face. Our program has to be a concrete one."
General Prabowo, with no illusions of being an intellectual, sniffed: "Excuse me, Mr Boediono. This is no dream. We have calculated the possibilities and, according to the opinions of our experts, it is extremely realistic."