Framing the Identity and Autonomy of Indigenous Peoples: A Critical Discourse Study of the Papua Special Autonomy Law on Indigenous Papuans
Abstract
This study analyzes how the identity and autonomy of Indigenous Papuans (OAP) are discursively framed in Law Number 2 of 2021 concerning the Second Amendment to the Papua Special Autonomy Law. Using a Critical Discourse Study (SWK) approach based on Norman Fairclough's theory, this study explores the dimensions of the text, discourse practices, and social practices of the legal product. The results of the analysis show that although the legal text explicitly uses language that appears affirmative, such as "recognized" and "granted," its linguistic and narrative structures actually reproduce the asymmetrical power relations between the state and indigenous peoples. The special autonomy and identity of Indigenous Papuans are not positioned as natural rights, but as concessions that are limited by the state's legalistic framework. The process of making laws or regulations and the distribution of discourse are controlled by the state, with limited participation from local communities, so that the consumption of legal discourse received by the community is often multi-interpretable. At the level of social practice, this law represents the state's hegemonic strategy to organize the diversity of identities through administrative control. Finally, the recognition of identity and autonomy in the Papuan Special Autonomy Law is only symbolic rather than substantive, so it needs to be criticized and transformed for the sake of structural justice for Indigenous Papuans.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18415/ijmmu.v12i8.6897
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