Abstract
This research is an investigation into the language use in peoples opinions of capital punishment for drug convicts in The Jakarta Post. Capital punishment was executed to six drug convicts on January 18th , 2015. Controversy about this action has risen before and after the execution. People give their opinions in social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and newspapers. The Jakarta Post is a well-known English newspaper in Indonesia which has a lot of readers. People choose this newspaper to convey their ideas so that their opinions will be read by people around the world. As the issue about capital punishment is popular recently, this research attempts at finding out peoples ideology about capital punishment for drug convicts. Critical discourse analysis was conducted in this research as an approach to figure out how language use by the people can reveal their ideology of capital punishment. This research focused on observing four opinions of capital punishment for drug convicts in The Jakarta Post. The analysis shows that material processes dominate the opinions, followed by relational, mental and verbal processes. The ideologies revealed in the opinions are power, pessimism, and criticism. Before the execution, pessimism dominates the opinions, while after the execution criticism appears most in the opinions.
Highlights
Drug abuse and addiction are serious problems as they destroy human beings
Fairclough (2006) clarifies that the critical approach in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is able to show how discourse is shaped by relations of power and ideologies, and the constructive effects discourse has upon social identities, social relations and systems of knowledge and belief, neither of which is normally apparent to discourse participants (p. 12)
This research finds that the capital punishment done in Jokowi’s presidential era does not get sufficient support from the citizens
Summary
Drug abuse and addiction are serious problems as they destroy human beings. It does create injuries and health and behavioral problems. Drug addiction is risky for pregnant women and their babies. Some drugs can cause a baby to be born too small or too soon, or to have withdrawal symptoms, birth defects on learning and behavioral problems (recovergateway.org/substance-abuse-resources/drug-addiction-effects/). Indonesia is recorded as a country which has a high percentage of drug abuse and addiction. The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) mentions that there are 4.5 million drug users in Indonesia, 22% of those are students and 70% are workers (www.bbc.com). Housewives, artists, office or independent workers, politicians, even athletes cannot be separated from drug abuse. The Indonesian government has decided to solve this case by giving capital punishment to the convicts, dealers
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
