The Representation of Indonesia in Prabowo Subianto’s Speech at World Economic Forum 2026: A Genre and Appraisal Perspective

Abstract

Political speeches at international forums build national identities and contribute to developing global perspectives on a nation’s policies and program. Therefore, examining the linguistic resources is essential to understand how political leaders construct national representation and achieve their communicative purposes. This study examines the use of genre and appraisal resources in President Prabowo Subianto’s speech at World Economic Forum 2026. It aims to identify how linguistic resources construct Indonesia’s representation and support the speech’s communicative purpose. This study employs a qualitative descriptive approach using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), particularly genre analysis proposed by Martin and Rose (2008), and appraisal theory by Martin and White (2005). The data consist of 3,558 words from the official speech transcript and a video lasting 54 minutes and 48 seconds, analyzed through the schematic structure and three Appraisal systems: Attitude, Graduation, and Engagement. The finding identified 1,251 appraisal resources, with Appreciation as the dominant Attitude category, Force as the dominant Graduation category, and Monogloss as the dominant Engagement category. These patterns indicate that evaluates Indonesia’s development positively, strengthens evaluative meanings through intensification, and presents propositions through direct and authoritative statements. In terms of genre, the speech follows a report structure supported by evaluative elements. The findings demonstrate that genre and appraisal resources work together to construct a positive representation of Indonesia as a stable, resilient, capable, and promising country. Therefore, the speech functions not only to provide information but also to persuade the international audience and strengthen Indonesia’s image globally.