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ROHINGYA IN MEDIA: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
Arina Isti’anah – Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Rohingya case has attracted world-wide attention as it is regarded as humanity rather than racial issue. The case has become viral throughout the world by means of, one of which, newspaper headlines. Media plays an important role to blow this humanity issue. Critical Discourse Analysis is urgently required to deconstruct the role of media in portraying that issue. Newspaper headlines on Rohingya case published in Myanmar and Bangladesh were analyzed in terms of their textual structures, employing Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar.
The data were taken in a purposive sample technique by observing twenty newspaper headlines from two newspaper companies: Mmtimes from Myanmar and The Nation from Bangladesh, taken during 2017. Both newspapers used topical Theme in their headlines, yet the participants chosen as the Themes are different. Myanmar headlines involved Actor, Goal, Sayer and Verbiage as their Themes. Bangladesh headlines, on the other hand, employed Actor, Goal, Carrier, Token and Sayer as the Themes. The ideologies concluded from different Theme features in the headlines are different. Myanmar newspaper headlines cover the Rohingya issue by blowing up the good deeds by Myanmar government, while Bangladesh newspaper headlines show the actions done by Rohingyans to save themselves.
Rohingya ethnic, located in south-western Rakhine state of Myanmar, has experienced a long sorrow regarding their identity and freedom of living. The government denial of their national state has taken place over than 150 years ago (Steinberg, 2010). Until now, Rohingyas are stateless. The conflict was triggered by the location where Rohingyas have stayed. Living in the border of Bangladesh, Rohingyas who are west Arakan, have been claimed as Bengalis by Myanmar government (James, 2006, p. 22). Blamed as ‘outsiders’, Rohingyas experienced ethnic cleansing by Buddhist groups in the early of 1900s and late 2003 (James, 2006). Rohingya is located in Rakhine state and considered as Arakanese, occupying 4.5% of the population (James, 2006, p. xxiv). Being Muslim, the Arakanese called themselves as Rohingya.
The Buddhist group forced the Rohingyans to pursue sanctuary across border in Bangladesh (James, 2006, p. 65). The report mentions that in January 2009, Myanmar government denied Rohingya’s attempting to flee Myanmar to Malaysia by sea as a ‘national race’, and referred them to Bengalis (James, 2006, p. 22). Rohingyans never have any type of citizens and ethnic groups (Steinberg, 2010, p. 73).
The history notes that in 1978, Myanmar police and troops made a sweep through that region and prompted morethan 200.000 to flee into Bangladesh. A similar flight occurred in 1991-1992 and again there was UN repatriation. The fusion of India and Burma in the colonial period, and the exodus during World War II and in the current period, made matters even more murky (Steinberg, 2010, p. 108). The clearing has continued up to early 2005, when “some 20.000 Muslim refugees from Myanmar still remained refugee camps in Bangladesh. Malaysia has offered political asylum to about 10.000 such persons” (Ganesan & Hlaing, 2007, p. 191). Rohingya case has attracted media to blow the issue. The effect is, one of which, countries throughout the world have put attention to Rohingyans. Supports in various forms, such as camps and solidarity in ASEAN countries, are the results of what media expose.
This research focuses on analyzing newspaper headlines published in two countries, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Newspapers are chosen as the data since they serve social and national issues in terms of their ideological perspectives (Sajjad, 2013). The newspapers involved are Mmtimes from Myanmar and The Nation from Bangladesh. Rohingyans live in Rakhine state which is located in the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh. It was, then, assumed as the initial problem experienced by Rohingyans. Therefore, it becomes the main reason why this research takes newspaper headlines from the two countries.
