FORMER PRESIDENT ASIF

ALI ZARDARI: A CRITICAL

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Submitted to: Dr. Serwat Rasul.
Submitted by: Maham Arshad
Dated: 16. April. 2014
Introduction
Text and talk control peoples minds, and,
therefore, discourse may also indirectly influence
peoples actions through persuasion and
manipulation. This means that those groups who
control most influential discourse also have more
chances to control the minds and actions of
others. (Sarfo, E., & Krampa, E. 2013)

About the Context.
The sample is an extract from former President
Asif Ali Zardaris speech on 27th December
2011, on the occasion of Benzair Bhutto
Shaheeds anniversary ceremony at Garhi
Khuda Baksh.
Mr. Asif Ali Zardari was a President at that time,
his party was in power and the second party in
power was PML(N).
Sample
The sample is of length 8:35
It is taken from tune.pk
It was originally aired on ary news, live on 27
Dec 2014.
http://tune.pk/video/1621202/Asif-Ali-
Zardari8217s-speech-on-Mohtarma8217s-
death-anniversary
Research Statement
The study aims to analyze the relationship of
power and use of that power in President
Zardaris speech through faircloughs CDA
model.
Research Question
What is the relationship of power and use of
power in Zardaris speech?
Research Methodolgy
Qualitative research, broadly defined, means
"any kind of research that produces findings not
arrived at by means of statistical procedures or
other means of quantification." (Strauss and
Corbin, 1990).

Literature Review
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a type of
discourse analytical research that primarily
studies the way social power abuse, dominance,
and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and
resisted by text and talk in the social and political
context. With such dissident research, critical
discourse analysts take explicit position, and
thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately
resist social equality (Van Dijk, 1985).
Critical Discourse Analysis
By CDA I mean discourse analysis which aims to
systematically explore often opaque relationships of
causality and determination between (a) discursive
practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and
cultural structures, relations, and processes; to
investigate how such practices, events and texts
arise out of and are ideologically shaped by
relations of power and struggles over power; and to
explore how the opacity of these relationships
between discourse and society is itself a factor
securing power and hegemony. (Fairclough, pp.
132-3)

CDA Model by Fairclough
According to Fairclough (2003), discourse is a
way of representing aspects of world, processes,
relations and structures of material world, mental
world of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and social
world.
Contd.
Fairclough's (1989, 1995) model for CDA consists
three inter-related processes of analysis tied to
three inter-related dimensions of discourse. These
three dimensions are
1. The object of analysis (including verbal, visual or
verbal and visual texts).
2. The processes by means of which the object is
produced and received (writing/
speaking/designing and
reading/listening/viewing) by human subjects.
3. The socio-historical conditions which govern
these processes.
Contd.
According to Fairclough each of these
dimensions requires a different kind of analysis
1. text analysis (description),
2. processing analysis (interpretation),
3. social analysis (explanation).
(Janks, 2010)
Textual Analysis.
Textual analysis involves vocabulary and
grammar.
In the selected speech, Zardari has used many
negative words and referential strategies.
Example:
Aur aj aik bila phasa hua hai, aur wo panjay
noch raha hai.
Because he is a man of power, he abuses his
power by referring to ex army chief through
negative lexical choices.
His tone is assertive, but due to his lack of
fluency in Urdu language he has many slips of
tongues.
Zardari has many declarative sentences in his
speech which is again showing his power. He
has the choice of omitting or adding information
according to his own pleasure and agenda.
For example: Sawa chaar bajay hamaein jailon mein
pta par gya tha k fauj move ho rahi hai aur plane to 6.30
bajay land ho raha tha
Mujh se dunya saari mein aur khaas keray peoples
party mein aur khaas keray ghazal ferghul poochta hai
k Zardari sahab yeh kia kya apneap ne yeh kyun
maana, ap ne yeh nataej kiun maanay?
This statement establishes Zardaris own
superiority and power, as he exaggerates that the
whole world and people party ask him why has he
accepted the election results and not stood up
against it despite the known rigging. This
statement of his establishes two points.
1. He has authority to accept and reject election
results.
2. He has accepted despite the worlds and
PPPs protests and becomes a man with high
sportsman spirits.
Processing analysis
Saath saal , jab se Pakistan bana hai, 65 years se,
Pakistan mein sayasi kuwatoon ko laraya ja raha hai,
sayasi kuwatoon ko laraya ja raha hai
Here, Zardari has used repetition for
emphasizing the impact of the unknown evil
forces that have been active in making the
political parties fight with eachother.
Interestingly, Saath saal, jab se Pakistan bana
hai, 65 years repetition here only shows
Presidents lack of facts, as in 2011, Pakistan
was neither 60 or 65 but 64.

Because Zardari has the power to exercise
freedom of speech, which he abuses by talking in
negative terms about military and implying that
military interventions have been the cause of
troubles of Pakistan.
Zardari here uses the very common Demonizing
strategy.
Demonizing is defined by rationalewiki as
following, Demonization (or 'demonisation,' as it
is spelt in British English) is an argumentative
strategy, often employed in political contexts,
whereby one group consistently describes a rival
group as beings of pure evil who want nothing
more than their enslavement, corruption, or
destruction.
To keep power, politicians and other powerful
groups attempt to persuade people that what
those groups want is also what people want. And
the matters about God, religion and believes are
some topics that most people accept and
respect. (Shayegh & Nabifar,2012)
Zardari prays to God to make the government
successful.
Aur mein chahta hun, dua kerta hun, mein is nateejay
ki dua kerta hun k is hakomat ko kamyab ker
President Zardari shows lack of modesty which
shows that he fully acknowledeges his power
and wants people to know that too.
Haan jo rastay meine dikhaye hen chahay wo Turkey
ka rasta ho, china ka rasta ho, Iran se pipeline ka rasta
ho wo saaray kaam kernay hen.
He proudly takes credit for the Iran gas pipeline
proposal and promises the nation that it will be
done.
Agar hamaray faujion k pas aslaha nahi, hathyar nahi,
barood nahi tou kia difa kerain gey, khanay ko anaj nahi
tou kia difa kerain gey.
Interestingly, Zardari makes a statement in front
of the whole Nation, whole world that our military
might not be equipped for defending themselves,
he does not address lack of electricity and other
issues but lack of weapons and explosives.
The last sentence referring to lack of food is also
mockingly related to defence.
This statement hints at the cold relation between
democracy and military.

Zardari talks about an unknown war, yeh jang bhi jo hai,
jo aa rahi hai aur mujhey nazar aa rahi hai, yeh jang aik mind
set k sath jang hai
Zardari forces his own forsight upon people by telling
them that he can foresee a war coming, it also implies
that Zardari is also an intellectual who can predict the
future political scenarios.
He explains how other countries like Vietnam and
Afghanistan have had gone through such a war too.
Gives example of civil war in SiriLanka, Vietnam p
imtehan aya hai, Afghanistan mein aya hai, dusri jagahon pe
jangain hui hen, Haan apas mein larain, Komain hamesha
apas mein lari hen, SiriLanka mein bhi, aik hi SiriLankans
hen, wo apas mein 30 saal laray hen.

End note of the speech.
It is interesting that the speech was given on the
event of death ceremony of Benazir Bhutto
Shaheed, yet the speech was most of the part
concerned with an unknown war, and a
metaphorical billa.
Zardari ends his speech by going to the event of
the day, Khair yeh kis aur din behas hogi, kisi aur
mokay p. Aj us Shadeeda ki baat hai, Bibi Shahiba ka
din ka, aj us shahdatoon ka din hai
Jeeay Bhutto!
Ex President end his speech with Pakistan
Paindabaad and Jeeay Bhutto, the chant of
PPP, winning over the crowd.
Jeeay Bhutto is constructing his affiliation and
identity.
CONCLUSION
Even though the subject of the speech was
expected to be Benazir Bhutto Shaheed, Ex
President was mostly discussing the Musharraf
and military issue.
He abuses his power by commenting on military,
by proclaiming foresight for a war and by
referring to military intervention in 1999 as a
hoax without any solid evidence.
References
Schiffrin, Deborah, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi Ehernberger Hamilton, eds.
The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
Incorporated, 2008. Print.
Fairclough, Norman. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social
Research. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Sarfo, E., & Krampa, E. (2013). Language at war: A critical discourse
analysis of speeches of bush and obama on terrorism. International J. Soc.
Sci. & Education , 3(2), 380.
Janks, H. (2010). Literacy and power language, culture, and teaching
series. Routledge.
Shayegh, K., & Nabifar, N. (2012). Power in Political Discourse of Barak
Obama . Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, 2(4), 3490.
Retrieved April 15, 2014, from
http://www.textroad.com/pdf/JBASR/J.%20Basic.%20Appl.%20Sci.%20Res
.,%202(4)3481-3491,%202012.pdf
Corbin, J. M., & Strauss, A. L. (2008). Basics of qualitative research,
techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage
Publications, Inc.

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