Metaphors in the Ex-GAM's Political Discourses during Pre-public Elections in Aceh

The Free Aceh Movement, locally called Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), developed
several unique political discourses after having signed a peace accord with the
Government of Indonesia (GoI) in Helsinki in 2005. The discourses created are
metaphorical in Acehnese language, aimed to structure people’s mind and to be
accepted and transformed into their actions that supported GAM during pre-public
election post conflicts. However, research on analyzing the metaphors is scant. This
research used Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980a, 1980b) conceptual metaphor and
Fairclough’s framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to critically analyze the
political discourses in order to unveil the meaning and their ideology position. The
research shows the most commonly used metaphor was ELECTION IS A BATTLE.
However, the currently used political metaphors are more persuasive, urging people
to voluntarily come back to their political party, than previously used ones that
seemed to strongly force people to be on their side.