Abstract
This paper explores the choice of language employed by the Malaysian mainstream media to construct the former Barisan Nasional government’s role in nation building in transforming Malaysia from a developing country to a fully developed country by the year 2020 as envisioned by Vision 2020. In particular, this paper focuses on fourteen curated news articles on the GST Malaysia Info web portal set up by the former government to educate the public on the benefits of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the country and the people by analysing lexical words with experiential values. The data collection, categorisation and analysis entail the use of simple corpus linguistic tools and close reading of the data based on the researchers’ interpretative resources or “member’s resources” (Fairclough, 2001). The analysis of this study utilising a qualitative approach shows that the people are not only persuaded to ‘buy’ the idea of the new GST tax regime but also to buy into the ideology and discourse of nation building from the introduction of a more efficient way of tax collection. It uncovers how the manipulation of an educational campaign on the GST into a political discourse of nation building produces a positive portrayal of the government with an efficient economic development plan. Drawing on Fairclough’s (1989, 2001, 2015) three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis framework with a focus on different values of formal linguistic features , this study offers insights into the interplay between language, politics and nation building. Keywords: Goods and Services Tax (GST); mainstream media; Critical Discourse Analysis; nation building; experiential value of words
Highlights
The exercise of power through language instead of physical coercion is commonly employed by governments in this digitally empowered age to persuade and convince people about certain policies and issues
The purpose of this study is to identify the different aspects of the discourse of nation building present in the news articles on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the previous government’s website GST Malaysia Info
On the slippery slope towards potential electoral backlash and obliteration, the government mounted the campaign leveraging multi-pronged strategies and discourses, one of which is the discourse of nation building, turning an education campaign on the GST into a political discourse of nation building to produce a positive portrayal of the government with an efficient economic developmental plan
Summary
The exercise of power through language instead of physical coercion is commonly employed by governments in this digitally empowered age to persuade and convince people about certain policies and issues Central to such exercise of power is the attempt to change, transform, manage and control people’s mental model to be consonant with those of powerful political elites. This sophisticated form of power exercise is considered necessary and more effective for the dominant group to perpetuate and extend its rule over the dominated group through the manufacturing of consent and persuasion as the exercise of power by force will not lead to everlasting rule The website was set up as part of the previous government’s campaign to educate people on the benefits of the GST with a view to garnering support for the tax regime change through transforming people’s mindset from anxiety, hostility and opposition to ambivalence and acceptance, if not total embrace
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