Discursive construction of political identity and power in Prabowo Subianto’s speeches: A critical discourse analysis

Abstract

Political speeches play a crucial role in shaping leadership identity, constructing authority, and legitimizing political power within contemporary democratic societies. This study investigates how political identity, power, and legitimacy are discursively constructed in the speeches of Prabowo Subianto. Employing a qualitative research design, the study applies Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework to examine the linguistic and discursive strategies embedded in selected political speeches, including presidential addresses, campaign speeches, and national policy statements. The analysis focuses on three interconnected dimensions: the construction of political identity, the representation of power relations, and the discursive formation of political legitimacy. In addition, the study incorporates the concept of logogenesis from systemic functional linguistics to explore how meanings, ideological positions, and leadership representations unfold progressively throughout the structure of the speeches. The findings reveal that Prabowo’s political identity is constructed through multiple and evolving discursive roles, including paternalistic leader, nationalist guardian, anti-corruption advocate, populist protector, and global statesman. These identities are realized through linguistic strategies such as inclusive pronouns, evaluative lexical choices, metaphors of struggle and sovereignty, historical narratives, and rhetorical repetition. Power is represented not only through institutional authority and directive expressions but also through collective identity construction and moral narratives that connect leadership with national aspirations and public welfare. Political legitimacy is further reinforced through references to colonial history, constitutional ideals, national unity, and narratives of protection against social and economic threats. This study contributes to political discourse scholarship by integrating identity, power, and legitimacy within a unified analytical framework and by demonstrating the value of combining CDA and logogenesis to explain the dynamic construction of political leadership in contemporary Indonesian political discourse.