A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TONY ABBOTT’S STATEMENTS RELATED TO THE SPYING ALLEGATION TOWARDS INDONESIA

This research was done in 2014 when there was an issue of spying towards
Indonesia by the Australian government. It explored Tony Abbott’s statements related to
his countering the accusation towards the Australia government of the spying issue to
Indonesia. The research aimed at answering Tony Abbott’s political discourse in his
statements, finding the way he used the political discourse; finding the supposed reason
of using the political discourse and seeking for the effects of this statements for
Indonesia. Descriptive qualitative was applied as the approach of the research. Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA) proposed by Norman Fairclough was used as the main
theory and Van Dijk’s theory of CDA is applied as the supporting theory. Data were
taken from YouTube and transcribed; the data were enriched with the ongoing
statements taken from Indonesian and Australian televisions. The results of the analysis
showed that rhetorical strategy and power were always performed in his statements.
This illustrated the way he used his political discourse. Explicitly, ideology was shown
from his statements. His ideology was endorsing the activity of Australian Intelligence
for the sake of National Security including the failure of stating apology towards
Indonesia causing the disappointment and anger of the Indonesians to Australian
Government. This result can be an evident of Fairclough’s viewpoint that ideology is
inherent in the discourse.
Keywords: CDA, rhetoric, power, ideology, political discourse