Malaysian Editorials on the Allah issue: A Critical Discourse Study

Abstract

This article examines the coverage in three Malaysian newspapers on an issue popularly known as the Allah issue. In 2009, the Catholic Church took the Malaysian government to court over the right to use the word Allah. In a landmark court decision, the Church was given the right to use the word Allah in the Catholic newsletter The Herald. However, this decision was appealed by the government, there was a stay order on the decision, and many protests took place over this issue.

Editorials of three important English newspapers chosen for their popularity and different stances in writing were chosen to examine the manner in which this controversial issue was handled. The method employed in the analysis was Critical Discourse Analysis as used by van Dijk (2005). The Malaysian print media faces some challenges in the form of the Printing Presses and Publications Act, 1984 (PPPA). The Act requires print media to apply for their licenses annually and are subject to censorship by government authorities who can revoke their licenses if news items are seen as a threat to national security.

Two print newspapers, one aligned to the government (The Star) and another private and independent one (The Sun) were chosen. The third is a web news portal which is relatively free from the PPPA and is therefore more vocal in its writing. The analysis shows that caution is exercised by the government affiliated paper, a more judicial approach is taken by the independent paper, and the web portal is very antigovernment in its stance.