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mid the uproar following Friday'€™s early morning vote results at the House of Representatives, all seemed bleak. The hard-won citizens'€™ right to vote for their own leaders had ended, just like that, while most of the nation was asleep.

The parties that received the most wrath were not only those that revoked direct elections for regional heads '€” Gerindra, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Golkar, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP) '€” but also the Democratic Party, which walked out at almost midnight, making ineffective their 148 votes that would have determined the retaining of direct elections for regional heads.

Indonesians had barely realized the reality, as many dozed off long before voting began, when they heard the latest update: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressing his '€œregret'€ at the process leading to the results in the House, including the walkout of his very own party. Twitter came alive with #ShameOnYouSBY and endless expressions of anger.

It is not clear how divided Indonesians are on the issue; it may be less clear than the ratio of the 53 percent of votes won by president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo against the 47 percent gained by Prabowo Subianto.

So now there is a common enemy again after 15 years. Throughout reformasi we have come to realize the ugly side of freedom whereby people feel they are free to express anything, including resentment toward fellow Indonesians of different creeds. Even Muslims have been pitched against each other. Battling the common enemy of the New Order under Soeharto, '€œthe smiling general'€, was much easier, many found.

Now Yudhoyono has provided that much-needed common enemy, which might just boost the twisting road to an improved democracy '€” as people wonder how difficult it really was to issue a simple order to the Democrats before the President left for the UN summit on climate change in New York.

Democrat members and chairman Yudhoyono blame their walkout on the little support given to their terms, but when you push '€œabsolute'€ conditions just minutes before a vote, of course one wonders whether experienced politicians are so naïve as to expect their wishes to be granted. All suspicions are thus directed toward the outgoing President, who is seeking brazenly to become a hero by saying his party will take legal action. People ignored him and were already beginning preparations to demand the Constitutional Court conduct a judicial review of the newly revised law.

There is skepticism about whether the Court will rule in favor of returning to direct elections of regional heads and this should focus collective action on what many people want: to grab their rights back.

Those who became sick of the negative excesses of direct elections would be relieved now that citizens will only choose their representatives, meaning there should be much better efforts to choose good councilors as they will select good regional heads. A situation in which we trust our representatives that much is utopian for many who oppose the revoking of citizens'€™ rights to direct elections.

Focusing debate on this issue and thrashing it out in the Constitutional Court will further advance democracy in Indonesia. Tellingly, we go to court instead of occupying airports for days on end like our neighbors in Thailand. Ironically, Thailand was among the main sources of inspiration to set up the court here, so that virtually each and every citizen can challenge the laws.

Diversions from the battle to win back citizens'€™ right to vote for local leaders will continue '€” the typical sort appealing to our senses of '€œus'€ and '€œthem'€, like the sins of minorities, or the provocations against Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama and his loud and merrily reckless mouth. But perhaps a common enemy in clear sight will be the remedy for a society still easily torn apart left and right by calls to defend identity.

It took the initiative of the Gerindra-led coalition to alarm people about the looming threat of losing one source of election fatigue: the direct elections of regional heads involving months of loud and less-than-quality campaigns, followed by poor delivery of the promises of the elected heads with hundreds of them arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for embezzling billions of rupiah of the public'€™s money.

However sickening the early Friday vote in the House was, the silver lining might be that the legislators delivered a cause for stronger unity, thanks to President Yudhoyono.

That might be the only good message we can pass on to the younger generation, which includs those who voted for many of today'€™s popular mayors and regents. One 10-year-old who accompanied her mother to the polling booth in the last election was quite confused with the latest news. '€œMama, does this mean later on I can'€™t vote, that when I'€™m 17 I can'€™t choose my own governor or mayor?'€ asked Sara in Ambon.

Ambon is the capital of Maluku, which witnessed the deaths of thousands in armed conflicts over partisan loyalties and mutual vengeance almost 15 years ago. We can tell Sara that, at the very least, many will unite to make sure that well before she is 17, Indonesians should be able again to vote for their own leaders.

Thanks to the politicians, including Yudhoyono, citizens might just again retain their true identity: as Indonesians who battle endlessly, if need be, for their democracy.