Relevance of Vernacular in the Contemporary World: Use of Vernacular Languages in the Presidential Debates in Indonesia.

Language is the main instrument in the political communications in elections around the world. It has become equally important in the last Indonesian presidential candidate debate. The linguistic aspects of the construction of debates that discuss various themes regarding existential problems in the Indonesian republic has far-reaching consequences. In them, the numerous ethnic groups in Indonesia must be accommodated as much as possible in order to guarantee a sense of national unity. In the contemporary Indonesian political discourse, the sense of national unity is torn apart as a result of Papua being still turbulent with some people trying to separate themselves. In this context, the employment of regional languages in the presidential debate contributes to manifest the politics of language into a reflection of the presidential candidates' ability in recognizing the languages of all the vernacular ethnic groups. This research examines the use of vernacular languages in the presidential debates in Indonesia. The research employs descriptive qualitative research methods. Data source is the recorded text of the 2024 presidential candidate debates obtained from the TV broadcasts. Data collection involved 'listening' and note-taking as the techniques. The data analysis technique employed Norman Fairclough's critical discourse theory. The analysis examined the text as a construction of social identity, social relations, and meaning. The results show that in this debate, there has been a strong emphasis on the recognition of social identity of the people of Indonesia. The three regional languages used by the presidential candidate Anies Baswedan in the debate reflect these identities of different ethnic groups: Java, Sunda and Maluku. what Anies highlighted was his efforts to bring about interactions among the ethnic groups. He argued that they must interact with each other to produce Indonesia as a unified nation. Anies has employed the languages to articulate philosophical meanings related to the struggle, nobility, consistency, honesty, wisdom and femininity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]