The Representations of Tun Dr Mahathir in Lat’s Cartoons in Addressing Issues of International Affairs

Abstract

This paper presents the study on the representations of Tun Dr Mahathir in Lat’s editorial cartoons, with the focus on how Tun Dr Mahathir managed international affairs. The data for this study were two editorial cartoons by Lat, which included Tun Dr Mahathir as one of the characters and revolved around the issues of international affairs. The data were analysed from the visual and linguistic perspectives. The visual analysis of the data was conducted using Multimodality as a tool of analysis while the linguistic analysis adopted Systemic Functional Linguistics as a tool of analysis. The findings show that Lat portrays Tun Dr Mahathir as a confident, responsible and respectful leader. This is due to the fact that he was firm as a leader, never failed to update himself with national issues even when he was abroad and he could easily adapt himself with foreign cultures.