The Analysis of Ideology of International Reactions towards the 2006 Thailand Coup d’etat Taken

The Analysis of Ideology of International Reactions towards the 2006 Thailand Coup d’etat Taken from the Article of Current Events Portal of Wikipedia.com

ABSTRACT

The aim of the research is to describe the register, genre and ideology of the texts concerning the International reactions towards the 2006 Thailand coup d’état. The research belongs to descriptive qualitative research. The source of data is the text from wikipedia.com published in September 29, 2006. The sampling technique used was total sampling since all aspects of lexicogrammar system, cohesion system and Generic Structure Potential was considered as data. The data were then interpreted to figure out the register, genre and ideology based on Systemic Functional Linguistics.

From the analysis, conclusion can be drawn as follows; in the analysis of field, the text discusses
about the international reactions toward the 2006 Thailand coup d’état. The interpretation of tenor notes that the status of the writers to the readers is generally equal. The judgment of the writers to the issue is negative; and commonly positive to the readers. The contact indicates that the familiarity of the text is high so the text is easy to understand. The third aspect of register, mode, signs that the text tends to use spoken-written channel in delivering the data. The analysis of genre concludes that the text employs exposition genre. The existence of one point of view that refuses the Thailand coup d’état implies that the writer has left antagonist ideology.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background

Information occurs in different places and different time. However, people cannot possibly come and get the information directly. The role of mass media both printed and electronic is significant towards the availability of information among the society. Mass media present various informations to provide for the society about economic, health, entertainment, sports and politics. Each medium tries to attract people by presenting interesting headline to be news. Internet is one of electronic media which has great role in providing various informations to the people. It is a part of the developing technology which offers quick access and up to date informations.

Wikipedia.com is a web encyclopedia presenting articles and informations which can be accessed easily by the internet user. There are different kinds of issues in the site, including political issues. Political issues often become interesting that often becomes a headline in mass media, whether printed or the electronic ones. The political happening in certain country may attract others to keep updating the latest news that occurs as the effects of the event which generally lasts longer than the event itself. Certain countries usually have their own policies in running their governmental activities. However, those policies may create some controversies toward the country involved or some other countries. In fact, certain policies and events of a country always leave several consequences toward the country involved. One of the political actions is The Coup d’état of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra by the Royal Thai Army on September 19, 2006. The political riot led by Thai Army Commander, General Sonthi Bonyaratglin, was aimed at taking over the formal government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup is the final act of the one – year political crisis occur in Thailand. Thailand coup d’état created great reactions from various sides internationally. These reactions come from some American countries, Asian countries, European countries, Oceania countries and several international organizations. They expressed their opinions showing their responses towards this event.

America is represented by Canada, The White House Press Secretary, and Costa Rica. Asia is represented by China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, and Singapore. Europe is represented by European Union, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, Russia, and Ireland. Oceania presents some comments from Australia and New Zealand. The International reactions present the opinions from International organizations such as United Nations which shows their comments through the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and also comments from International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile, the International Media is represented by The Economist and The New York Times. Those reactions varied across countries. However, the reactions can be generalized as negative. The United States is one of the big countries expressing their opinions towards this issue, “There’s no justification for military coup in Thailand or in anyplace else, and we certainly are extremely disappointed by this action.”

Although the coup is typically bloodless, great reactions outside Thailand keep growing. As each country has their own response upon this event, it is interesting to discuss their comments. Some of the comments were displayed on the portal of Current Events in one of encyclopedia websites, wikipedia.com. This portal contains several texts related to the coup including the International Reactions toward this political issue. The International Reactions consists of Diplomatic Reactions and International Media Responses. The Diplomatic Reactions text contains several comments of countries and international organizations. Whereas, the International Media Responses text covers the comments from International Media. A text is a realization of certain social process having certain values (Santosa, 1995a). The text of International Reactions represents those different points of views in responding the coup. In general, ideology is a term commonly related to politics. In linguistic context however, ideology is more considered as a result of interaction of cultural values, norms, beliefs and experiences in viewing social phenomena. Ideology deals with the existence of domination and power within the community (Santosa, 2003). In this analysis, the texts containing various comments from different countries exposing the Thailand Coup are the results of this political phenomenon. However, refer to the above theory, a text must be ideologically constructed reacting to certain event. As a consequence, the texts might be pro or contra toward the event. Therefore, those different texts will be interesting to analyze in terms of the ideology applied.

Based on the understanding of ideology, the writer is interested to conduct the research entitled “The Analysis of Ideology of International Reactions towards the 2006 Thailand coup d’état taken from the Article of Current Events portal of wikipedia.com, September 29, 2006.