Maria Martha Nikijuluw (Ghent): Portrayal of Dutch Apology for War Atrocities in Indonesian Mass Media

Join us for the RC21 Project Symposium, where invited speakers and project team members, Poster Presenters will present their work on methodology and applications of concordance analysis!

Maria Martha Nikijuluw (Ghent): »Portrayal of Dutch Apology for War Atrocities in Indonesian Mass Media«

Abstract:

This study examines the portrayal of the Dutch apology for war atrocities in Indonesia through corpus based discourse analysis, with a specific focus on the application of concordance analysis. It analyzes 126 headlines and excerpts from news articles retrieved via Google searches using the keywords pemerintah Belanda minta maaf kepada Indonesia ‘Apology of the Netherlands government to Indonesia’ and ganti rugi dari pemerintah Belanda ‘Reparations from the Dutch government’. The selected articles represent various levels of media, both nationally and locally. Concordance analysis were employed to explore both the frequency and contextual usage of specific terms within the corpus. Tools such as WebCorp and Wordle were used to identify all occurrences of selected words, accompanied by surrounding text excerpts, to visualize and ensure the readability of the data. The analysis revealed two key terms: perbudakan (slavery) and kemerdekaan (independence). Indonesian media headlines opted for the word ‘slavery’ because Dutch apology refers to slavery in all Dutch colonized countries including Indonesia. While the term kemerdekaan implies a demand to first recognize Indonesia's independence, the Dutch are allowed to apologize. The term pengakuan kemerdekaan ‘independence acknowledgment’ was highlighted issue due to a perceived assumption from a collective Indonesian psyche that the Netherlands has not truly recognized Indonesian independence. Furthermore, the study found that the apology messages in the Indonesian media, the historical timeline of the massacre and the reason for the Dutch apologizing for slavery during their colonial period were insufficient and not comprehensive. They did not take into account the long period of Indonesia's colonization (350 years), but only the more recent duration of 5 years, 1945-1949. Media headlines from 2023 emphasized the need for an official apology and subsequent reparations for the victims of the war, as well as a return of plunder such as historical artifacts. Local media voices from regions beyond Java highlighted the broader colonial experience not limited to Java. This study raises the question of whether apology or forgiveness should take precedence in postcolonial discourse and suggests that further research using concordance analysis could deepen our understanding of how these complex issues are framed and represented in mass media.

Keywords: Apology, Discourse, Concordance Analysis, Mass Media