DECEMBER 7 — The irony. Barely two weeks before Star Wars: The Force Awakens premieres, our country approves a Bill which makes the Sith Lords look like kindergarten teachers. 

Little more than a fortnight from now, we’ll see the super-cool “cross-like” light-saber wielded by Kylo Ren in action. 

But last week, the National Security Bill 2015 was basically a light-saber thrust into the butter-heart of democracy (see Note 1), a kind of political move not seen since 1969. 

There are inevitable similarities between that year and 2015.

In ‘69, after Malaysia’s worst riots, the National Operations Council (NOC) was created. That and martial law gave dictatorial powers to certain folks to govern “in lieu of an elected government.”

The game plan sounds like something that would bring bad memories to Master Yoda. Power-hungry people lost control of the parliament? What to do? Simple: Create a national catastrophe, call it a racial riot, declare an Emergency, seize full power and ensure one’s rivals cannot rise again. 

Darth Sidious would be so proud. To this day, May 13 is spun as indicative of how dangerous ethnic tensions can be and, thus, how non-pro government parties and ethnicities better toe the line.

No victim, no war 

In fact, I’m pretty sure George Lucas read some Malaysian history as he was writing up Revenge of the Sith. The Siths’ plan was a) manipulate the Trade Federation to create trouble, b) use the trouble to justify the creation of an army, then c) use the army to (in a stroke) wipe out the opposition but not before d) claiming one is being victimized by them.

In the context of ‘69, replace Trade Federation with “ethnic tension” and army with “pro-dictatorship laws” and there we have 1969 and 2015 in a nutshell. We’re being victimized, so we have the right to act like Genghis Khan.

That’s right — nothing like the victim card. I can’t recall a single major war which wasn’t ‘justified’ via the victim mentality, can you?

• WWI — they shot our Austrian Archduke VIP, let’s kill a few million of them!
• WWII — they turned our great mansion-nation into a weak and shameful apartment-country, let’s grab all their territories and gas those annoying Jews!
• Vietnam — they fired at our metal sampans in the Tonkin Swimming Pool, let’s launch the napalms!
• Gulf War I — Kuwait was stolen from us, let’s send in a million tanks to take it back (notice this applies to both the Iraqis and the Americans?)!
• Gulf War II — they have invisible nuclear warheads, let’s invade and set up TESCOs! 
• Malaysia 2015 — ISIS is threatening us! Solution? Absolute power.

In the Star Wars movies, the Sith leader had actual scars to show off, and there were actual battles, laser-gun fights and explosions (i.e. wars in the stars) to give credence to the phrase “national security.”  

But in the real world, we only need some uniformed dude to get scratched and suddenly the bombers are taking off.

And as we know, in Malaysia the phrase “national security” is stretched to infinity and beyond (see Note 2). A group of grandmas march to protest the lack of healthcare? National security. Not enough prawn paste for the asam laksa? National security.

Doesn’t take a genius to see that the victim mentality in fact produces many genuine victims. For our country, as at last Friday, democracy is one of them.

Note 1: It seems there was a long debate on the Bill before it was passed. This is precisely why our parliamentarian system is messed up. To even discuss a bill which allows powerful people to behave like tyrants (and do so with Darth Vader-like impunity) is to already lose the battle.

Note 2: If you haven’t read Khairie Hisyam Aliman’s summary of the Bill, you need to put down your nasi lemak, close this window and read it now.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.