School textbooks write that President Sukarno issued his July 5 1959 presidential decree to save the nation and the state. The decree re-instituted the 1945 Constitution and abrogated the 1950 Provisional Constitution. The former was considered better "as it is in line with the five-point state principle of Pancasila."

In reality, however, events around the 1959 Decree were more complex than they appeared and were also laden