Acehnese or Indonesian? Post-conflict representation of identity in a local newspaper

Findings

The sample of 88 news articles was analysed using these coding categories: themes, framing perspectives, labels for Aceh, labels for Indonesia and depiction of Aceh-Indonesia relations. Thus, the following quantitative results of the analysis are presented according to those categories in a row. Also, in order to give proportional representation of different types of news articles, the results are presented in the percentage of each type of news article.

The analysis uncovered several main themes in the news coverage in Serambi Indonesia from July 2012 to May 2013. Those themes were categorised thus: 

• The most significant theme was the dispute over the official flag of Aceh which accounted for 63 percent of the overall news coverage. This theme has been predominant in this newspaper since the end of March 2013 to May 2013. Despite the fact that the Helsinki agreement provided special privileges for Aceh to have its own flag, symbol and hymn, controversy over this has erupted since the governor of Aceh signed bylaw number 3/2013 on Aceh’s flag and symbol, allowing the use of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) flag as the provincial flag of Aceh. 
•  Unsurprisingly (given the time frame) another significant theme was that of the local elections (10 percent). Indonesian laws often conflict with each other; as part of this theme the issue discussed was conflicting national regulations faced by the Independent Election Commission in Aceh (KIP Aceh) for deciding on quotas for legislative candidates. 
•  The remaining themes included Aceh Governing Law (6 percent), Wali Nanggroe (5 percent), bylaws (3 percent), Acehnese development (2 percent), Acehnese history (2 percent), and miscellaneous (9 percent). 

In addition, even though most of the themes discussed were based on laws and regulations, two—on Aceh development and Aceh history—were exceptions. Coverage of both themes took different positions from the others, capturing relationships between Aceh and Indonesia through the focus on the Aceh Indonesia relationship in the past and in the future. Both themes were, however, only found in opinion pieces. The themes uncovered shared common ground, suggesting ongoing tensions in relation to the Aceh-Indonesia relationship after the Helsinki accord. 

 In terms of framing, the most dominant framing perspective found in connection with Aceh-Indonesia relations was a local perspective with 68 percent. Other perspectives included national perspective (19 percent), followed by group perspective (8 percent) and individual perspective (5 percent). By investigating framing perspectives across news sections, it was evident that a national perspective was only found in news stories. Opinion pieces and editorials were fully immersed within local perspectives (despite opinion pieces being contributed by members of the public, while editorials were written by the senior editorial staff). Not surprisingly, an individual perspective was mostly used in letters to the editor. As far as framing perspectives are concerned, this local framing perspective may be justified as being part of the nature of a local newspaper. However, considering such perspectives were found within the reportage of Aceh-Indonesia relations, the use of a framing perspective could suggest a tendency towards the privileging or exclusivity of Acehnese identity. 

Our framing analysis further attempted to uncover labels—words used in articles when referring to Aceh, such as government, body, people, legislation, and symbols. This study found that there were three main types of labels, namely: references to government, references to people and references to a flag/emblem. The references to government included Aceh government (32 percent) and the local/provincial government (12 percent), followed by the reference to the head of administration as governor (13 percent). Further, the references to people included citizenry (1 percent), citizen (13 percent) and society (17 percent). Finally, the references to flag/emblem included the GAM flag/emblem (4 percent) and Crescent-Star flag/Bouraq-Lion emblem (8 percent). In terms of the use of labels for government, it could be seen that the use of ‘Aceh government’ was not always followed with that of ‘the local/provincial government’. The use of the local/provincial government to refer to the government of Aceh might be regarded as a referential word to Indonesia. It also applied to the governor and vice governor: when referring to the heads of administration in Aceh, Serambi frequently used the names of the governor and vice-governor, instead of using the labels governor/vice governor (which indicated references to Indonesia). We also found three labels used to describe the people of Aceh. The most frequently used was society, followed by citizen, and finally citizenry. Interestingly, the label ‘citizenry’ was only found in news stories. This finding suggests a particular meaning ascribed to these words—in Bahasa Indonesian, citizenry is a label mostly used to describe the group of people who live in a particular city, town, or province, while citizen is a label specifically used to denote the group of members of a particular nation-state. Therefore, citizen is used to describe the people of Indonesia, while people in a particular province or area in Indonesia are called citizenry. Hence, using ‘citizen’ to describe Acehnese people might underscore ties with Indonesia, of which the Acehnese are technically citizens. In addition, society was deemed the most neutral word to refer to people, unlike citizen or citizenry. Finally, the most significant labels to describe Aceh’s flag and emblem were ‘Crescent-Star flag’ and ‘Bouraq (Lion) emblem’. The use of these labels are considered neutral in referring to Aceh’s provincial flag and emblem, as the dispute over the current flag and emblem between the Indonesian government and Aceh administration still continues.

In contrast to labels for the government of Aceh, the words central or national governments were mostly used to mention the government of Indonesia, which accounted for 45 percent of the overall sample. Another significant label for the government was Indonesian government with 33 percent. Further, in relation to the head of the government, Indonesian labels also presented a converse finding to Acehnese labels. Labels such as ‘President of Indonesia’ or ‘Minister of Home Affairs’ were employed to describe the head of the government of Indonesia or the authorised minister responsible, instead of using only the names of the president or the minister. The use of such labels, central government or president, unconsciously created a sense of Aceh as part of Indonesia. Comparing the use of labels for Indonesia in each news section, it was found that editorials showed obvious gaps between the use of the central/national government and Indonesian government. While other news sections did not show significant differences in the use of both labels, editorials employed the highest proportion of the use of ‘central/national government’ and the lowest proportion of the use of ‘Indonesian government’.

Based on the findings with regard to themes, it was obvious that the Aceh flag was a dominant and current issue in the coverage of Aceh-Indonesia relations. Therefore, the selection of the sample for framing analysis was mostly taken from the news article under this theme. A flag is commonly perceived as a symbol of identity of a particular nation, and thereby issues surrounding the current Aceh flag could be asserted as having clear-cut identity issues in relation to Indonesian state. Gamson and Lasch define metaphors as analogies and symbols depicting the frame that describes an object through a reference to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to the object (1983, p. 4). In this regard, a metaphor always has two parts: ‘the principal subject that the metaphor is intended to illuminate and the associated subject that the metaphor evokes to enhance our understanding’ (Gamson & Lasch, 1983, p. 4). Our study documented the use of metaphor in Serambi’s news coverage of the provincial flag of Aceh. In brief, the choice of words to describe the provincial flag has been changed according to political circumstances. When the draft bylaw on Aceh’s flag and coat of arms was still in discussion in the Aceh parliament, there was no use of metaphor to describe the flag, though the proposed flag was already recognised as the GAM flag at that time. Instead, the word ‘flag’ was used to refer to the proposed flag; it was evident in the news article headlined ‘Flag is not for certain groups’. However, since the local government passed bylaw number 3/2013 which allowed the flag used by the former rebels to be the provincial flag, Serambi Indonesia explicitly devised the term ‘Aceh flag’ to describe the flag. This term was first used in the news article headlined ‘Aceh flag surprises Jakarta’, published a day after the flag bylaw passed. Yet this term was no longer used as the rising controversy over the use of the separatist flag as the provincial flag. Currently, Serambi Indonesia has employed ‘crescent and star’ to refer to the flag because of the flag’s design bearing the crescent and star image. In this regard, ‘crescent and star’ could be argued to be the metaphor of the Aceh flag in which the crescent and star act as ‘the associated subject’ that has a similar characteristic with and intended to signify the Aceh flag as ‘the principal subject’, as Gamson and Lasch explain (1983, p. 4).

The second framing device is exemplars which can be defined as events or historical examples used to exemplify the frame; they are not found either in news stories, in editorials or in letters to the editor (Gamson & Lasch, 1983). Exemplars were only employed in opinion pieces. The opinion piece ‘Why the 1976 flag?’ attempted to argue why Aceh should adopt the GAM flag as the provincial flag through a historical reference to the rebellion period led by GAM where thousands were killed, as the writer argued, to defend the flag for the sake of Aceh. The writer went further by referring to the profile of Hasan Tiro, the founder of GAM as well as the creator of the flag to assert that the acceptance of the 1976 flag as the official flag could be regarded as the commemoration of Hasan Tiro’s merits and sacrifices for Aceh. Another opinion piece ‘Aceh; between red-and-white and crescent-and-star’ discussed the controversy surrounding the Aceh flag through a citation to the history of Aceh. The writer argued that the Aceh flag was already recognised in the history of Aceh since the sultanate period. The exemplars used were similar in the sense of using the history of Aceh. As Gamson and Lasch argue that such exemplars aimed to ‘frame the principal subject’, in this regard the current Aceh flag, that the adoption of the GAM flag as the provincial flag was already appropriate and it thus should not be contested (1983, p. 4). Irrespective of the controversy over the flag, the use of Aceh history as exemplar was also found in other themes, such as ‘Aceh development’ and ‘Aceh history’.

Conclusion 

 Our study suggests that in the construction of Acehnese identity, Serambi Indonesia has not promoted a separate Acehnese identity as distinct from an Indonesian identity, but in addition to Indonesian identity. The newspaper embraces a distinct Acehnese identity within the framework of Indonesian national identity, and it further attempts to construct the distinctive identity within the symbolic boundary of Indonesian identity; this is apparent in the editorials which are supposed to reflect the news organisation’s stance towards particular issues. Serambi Indonesia’s editorials have used distinct labels for Aceh, including the ‘government of Aceh’ and ‘citizen’ which indicate the exclusivity of Aceh as a free nation. On the other hand, the editorials produce more referential labels for Indonesia, including the ‘central/national government’ which signpost Aceh as part of the Indonesian state.

The coding categories used demonstrated two concurrent constraining indications in favour of distinction and allegiance to the Indonesian state. A source of distinction was evident in themes capturing disputes between the Indonesian Government and Aceh administration, local framing perspectives, and the use of distinctive labels for Aceh. On the other hand, a source of allegiance could be found in the use of relational labels for Indonesia and the depiction of ‘Aceh within Indonesia’. However, these findings needed bolstering through further investigation within a framing analysis. Our framing analysis revealed the use of exemplars and metaphors which signify ethnocentrism to the extent that they convey the idea that Aceh is more privileged from other provinces in Indonesia and thus it deserves special treatment from the Indonesian government. These ethnocentric depictions and exemplars are mostly found in opinion pieces and letters to the editor, which are written by members of society, not from the editorial staff of the paper.

In comparison to similar studies, our findings confirm previous research that concludes that newspapers play a significant role in the construction of collective identity. In particular, this study shares some similarities with Richardson et al’s (2008) findings on Corse Matin, to the extent of the construction of a conciliatory identity between cultural and national identities in local newspapers. The study conducted by Richardson et al. concluded that Corse-Matin, the only daily newspaper on the Corsican island, played a neutral stance by concurrently showing sympathy for the French state and the Corsican nationalists, while avoiding criticism of either (2008). We found that Serambi Indonesia goes further by acting as a bridge builder for the Acehnese to manage the tension between their Acehnese and Indonesian identities through the overt idea of peace commitment and against separatism.

The tendency of Serambi Indonesia to frame a distinctive Acehnese identity within the Indonesian state may result from several possible factors, including ownership structure and the orientation of the news organisation under which Serambi operates. Firstly, this newspaper is partly owned by the Kompas Gramedia Group, one of the largest media conglomerates in Indonesia. Moreover, as Bahari argues, Serambi Indonesia has survived in the unprofitable media industry in Aceh as it enjoys the financial support of its owner (2005). In this case, Kompas could exert more control towards Serambi Indonesia through financial influence. With regard to stories related to national security issues, such as separatism, national media networks might experience political pressure to clearly state their position, and it is in their interests not to be seen supporting separatist movements. In addition to ownership factors, according to Bahari, Aceh’s long history of violent conflict makes it hard for media to survive (2005). Serambi Indonesia, which is the only ‘survivor’ in the local newspaper industry is fully aware of the negative effects of violent conflict on its own business. In this regard, it is looking towards its own financial interests in pushing for sustainable peace in Aceh, and hence a conducive atmosphere for the media industry in the province. 

 

SOURCE :

DOI: 10.24135/pjr.v24i2.439 
Article  in  Pacific Journalism Review · November 2018