Indonesian presidential aspirant Aburizal Bakrie is finding out the hard way that hugging a teddy bear while on holiday with two young actresses can quickly be made an issue.

Pictures and a video of the Golkar party chief in a private jet with sisters Marcella and Olivia Zalianty en route to the Maldives, and of the brown stuffed toy, have gone viral online.

As Indonesia’s three-week campaign for legislative elections hit the second week yesterday, several top party leaders have found themselves the targets of kampanye hitam, or black campaigns.

The idea is simple enough: Play up a “scandal” involving your political rival and turn voters off that person.

“Black campaigns are orchestrated to discredit popular politicians with the aim of forcing them to exit the political stage. Such campaigns employ religious sentiments or even promote ideological themes,” said associate professor Leonard Sebastian from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.