"The Language of Election in Post-Conflict Aceh Society”
The Language of Election in Post-Conflict Aceh Society
Prof. Dr. phil. Saiful Akmal, M.A.
"The Language of Election in Post-Conflict Aceh Society”
Abstract
The post-conflict Aceh electioneering language by former ex-GAM (rebels) politicians following the conflict is examined in this presentation. It addresses the peculiar political discourse they used throughout their pre-election campaign in a few chosen Aceh media outlets. Along with examining the more general, macro, systematic, and strategic use of discourse, it also examines the more limited, micro, and mechanical meaning of linguistics' significance to politics. There seems to be some, if not all, of the terminology used in the ex-GAM political campaign being designed to boost their chances of winning Aceh's pre-election campaign following the civil war. The rhetorical actor, or rhetorician, is the subject of this study, which examines their tactics and how they differ from printed newspapers and portal news in terms of parallels and contrasts. However, it's also plausible that these reports paint a generic, recurring image of previous elections and, to some extent, of those to come.
Short Bio
Saiful Akmal is a Professor in Language, Culture and Communication, at the Department of English Language Education, Faculty of Education and Teaching, Ar-Raniry State Islamic University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. He completed his Master's Degree from the Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Liverpool, England in 2007, and earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2014 from Johan Wolfgang von Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany from the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Language and Culture. He has been teaching Sociolinguistics, Literature, and English for Islamic Studies, and Discourse Analysis courses at the Department of English Language Education, Political Communication, Southeast Asian Politics and Critical Thinking courses at the Faculty of Social and Administrative Sciences, Mass Media Communication, and Cross Cultural Understanding at the Postgraduate School.
He started his career as a teaching staff and then the secretary of the Department of English Language Education between 2016-2020, before serving as the Department of Islamic Communication and Broadcasting Master Program at the Post Graduate School, In addition to teaching, Saiful is also involved in the development sector during tsunami recovery and rehabilitation efforts in the Aceh community development program at AIPRD-AUSAID and the Aceh Society Task Force (ACSTF). He was the Executive Director of The Aceh Institute in 2018-2020, appointed as the Head of the Aceh German Alumni Association (PAJ Aceh) in 2018-2021, Senior Program Officer at the International Center for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies (ICAIOS), Aceh network representative for JARI (Jejaring Alumni and Returnee Indonesia), and Returning Expert - GIZ Germany, in 2016-2018.
Saiful is also active in initiating community social foundations such as establishing https://padebooks.com/ (2016), Indonesian Intellectual Lantern (2019), SEKATA Agency Translation (2021), and E-Trust (2022). He serves also at other international boards such as serving as a country expert is V-Dem, University of Oslo, Norway. Currently, Saiful was also selected as one of the young scientists at ALMI (Indonesian Academy of Young Scientists) from 2022-2024, a participant in the International Deans Course (IDC) in 2022-2023 and University Leadership Training (UniLEAD) in 2019 organized by the DIES-DAAD Germany in 2022-2023 and a participant in the Australian-Indonesian Muslim Exchange Program (AIMEP) Intercultural Course in 2022, and an (EMI) Pathfinder Project from the British Council awardee in 2022.