Language and Islam in Malaysian political speeches

Kamila Ghazali

doi:10.1515/ijsl-2014-0016

Article

Language and Islam in Malaysian political speeches

Kamila Ghazali

Published/Copyright: July 31, 2014

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From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2014 Issue 229

Abstract

This article compares the discourses on Islam generated by the current and two previous Prime Ministers of Malaysia. As Prime Minister, each of them concurrently held the post of party president of UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) which is the main political party in the coalition government of the country. Political parties in multi-ethnic Malaysia are largely race based parties and members of UMNO are predominantly Muslim Malays. The data are the keynote addresses delivered by the party president at the UMNO General Assembly held annually. As the party president speaks, he expresses the attitudes and ideologies of his own group – Malays, Muslims, political entity, presupposing common values and knowledge of history. The article presents findings on how each speaker makes references to Islam in terms of rhetorical structures of texts, representation of “us” and “them”, and the socio-political changes which result in the production and/or reproduction of discourse and social actions therein. In sum, analysis reveals similarities and differences among the speakers in their references to Islam. As discourse is ideologically motivated and socially produced, structures and references change as the socio-political environment of the nation evolves.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis; ideology; Malaysia; UMNO; Malay

Published Online: 2014-7-31

Published in Print: 2014-9-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2014-0016

Keywords for this article

critical discourse analysis; ideology; Malaysia; UMNO; Malay