May 1998 Riot’s in Indonesia Dailies (Chinese Vs Moslem Or Power Vs Power)
Nina Widyawati (Indonesia Institute of Science/LIPI)
Media is construction agent. May 1998 riot’s constructing by Indonesia dailies in difference ways. Kompas say that the conflicts are conflict between people and economic power, so the targets of riot are economic symbols (bank, trade area). Media Indonesia see that May riot’s are conflict between people and power (politic, economy), in this case riot’s target are political power symbols (police car, government building and trade area). And, Republika portrait that are conflict between power (people-proponent of reformation) and power (opponent of reformation). Four days after the riots the discourses of riot enlarge, its go to identifying the group that involved to the riot. Kompas and Republika that the conflict are ethnic conflict (inhabitant vs Chinese), class conflict (powerless economic vs powerfull economic) and religion conflict (Moslem vs others). But Media Indonesia only identified conflict into 2 categories; class conflict and ethnic conflict. From the discourse, the dailies implies that actor of the riot are inhabitant-poor-Moslem. The victims are Chinese, rich and non-Moslem. Is inhabitant-poor-Moslem a collective identity? It is silent identity which increase that the people faced the same problem. And, media powerful enough in construct or deconstruct identity for mobilization.
