Dr Jacqui Baker
PhD Comparative Politics, MSc Social Anthropology, BA (Politics), BAS (Indonesian)

Lecturer in Southeast Asian Studies

About me

I hold a PhD in Comparative Government and an MSc in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics as well as Bachelor of Arts and Asian Studies degrees from the Australian National University.

I am currently conducting research on the role of the Indonesian police in democratic consolidation as well as a secondary project on criminal monies in Indonesia.

I have also worked or provided consultancy services on political, legal or police issues for numerous international organisations including East Timor’s Commission for Truth, Reception and Reconciliation, The Asia Foundation, the European Union, Amnesty International, International IDEA and United National Office for Drugs and Crime.

In 2014, “Eat Pray Mourn“, a radio documentary based on my research carried out in Jakarta and produced in collaboration with Dr Siobhan McHugh for Radio National ABC 360 Documentaries was awarded a bronze medal by the New York Festivals Awards.

I am the president of the Indonesia Council. I also sit on the national board for the Australian Consortium for In-Country Studies (ACICIS) and the WA/NT board of the John Monash Foundation.

Teaching area

POL133 Introduction to Politics 

 

POL257 Democracy and Political Change  

 

SWM640 Corruption, Anti-Corruption and its Discontents

 

 

 

Research areas

  • Indonesian Politics and Society
  • Corruption and Illegal Economies
  • Historical Sociology and Theories of State Formation
  • Coercive State Institutions
  • Politics of Law
  • Democracy and Democratization

Current projects

  • The Police in Democratizing Indonesia
  • “Dirty-Money States”: Illicit state financing in Southeast Asia
  • Criminal Monies in Indonesia

Awards and grants

2012    ABC Radio National 360 Documentaries

2011    UOW University Small Grant Award

2011    NSW Law Society Public Purpose Fund

2009    Australian Friends of LSE Award

2006    Central Research Travel Grant, University of London,

2003    Sir General John Monash Award, providing AU$150,000 over three years towards a Ph.D.

2002    Ann Bates Prize for Indonesian Studies

2002    Federation of University Women Prize – ACT

2001    Distinguished Students’ Award, ANU Chancellor

Events and speaking engagements

Invited Talks 
2014
  • “Eat Pray Mourn” Ubud Writers Festival, Bali, 1-5 October
  • “The Indonesian Election 2014″, 29 July, Australian Strategic Policy Initiative (ASPI) 
  • “Transnational Crime in the Pacific” School of International, Strategic and Political Studies, ANU, 12 May
  • “Monash Made Us a Nation”, 22 May, Monash Commemorative Service, Knox Grammar 
  • “Police Accountability”, 2014, Advanced Police Academy (PTIK), Indonesian National Police. Jakarta, Indonesia. 9 April
2013
  • “Indonesia Mon Amour: On the Ethics of Loving a Serial Killer” Causindy (Conference for Australian and Indonesian Youth), 19 October.
  • “The Police”, Australia’s Aid to Indonesia: Understanding the Context, Ausaid, 1 August.  
  • “Making Eat Pray Mourn: Towards Radio Documentary as Aural Ethnography” CAPSTRANS, University of Wollongong, May 22.
2012
  • “The Parman Economy: Post-Authoritarian Shifts in the Security Economy” Indonesia Studies Group, Australian National University. December 12.
  • “The Parman Economy: Post-Authoritarian Shifts in the Security Economy” KITLV. November 15.
  • “Democratisation from Military-Authoritarian Rule and the Rise of the Police” Advanced Police Academy (PTIK), Indonesian National Police. Jakarta, Indonesia. 3 February.
2011
  • “From Casino Protectionism to the Economy of Law: Post Authoritarian Transformations in the Illicit Revenue Source of the Indonesian Police” Asian Studies, Murdoch University, Fremantle. 6 October.
2009
  • “The Reform of the Police in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia” Indonesia Forum Meeting, Chatham House, London. 8 March.
Conferences & Workshops 
2013 
  • “The Devil’s Money is Eaten by His Lessor Demons: Towards an Anthropology of ‘Dirty      Money’  Australian Anthropological Society, Australian National University, 6 November.
  • “Police and the Politics of Disgust” Dangerous Ideas, College of Asia Pacific, Australian National University, 4 November.
  • “Eat Pray Mourn: Towards Radio Documentary as Aural Ethnography”, Radio Conference University of Bedfordshire. July 10.
  • “Illicit State Financing and the Fiscal Sociology of the Southeast Asian State” European Southeast Asian Studies, Lisbon. July 3
2011 
  • “Methods for the Study of Modern Tubers: “Spaces of Nonexistence” and Indonesian Police Corruption’ “Spaces of Non-existence” Methodology Workshop. University of Amsterdam & Murdoch University, Jakarta. 23-24 June.
  • “Comparing Police Dysfunction” Comparing Asian Police Workshop. Centre for Excellence in Policing, Australian National University, Canberra. 27-28 July.
2010
  • “From Casino Protectionism to the Economy of Law: Post Authoritarian Transformations in the Illicit Revenue Source of the Indonesian Police”, 2010, 3rd GERN (Post) Colonial Policing Workshop. Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), Leiden. 16-17 September.
2009
  • “The Economy of Police Torture” United Kingdom Southeast Asian Studies Association Annual Conference, Swansea. 10 September.
  • “Power and Envy in the Reorganisation of the Coercive Apparatus in Indonesia” Military-Police Relations Panel, European Research Group on Military and Society (ERGOMAS), Stockholm. 22-26 June.
  • “Power and Longing in the Reorganisation of the Coercive Apparatus in Indonesia” Workshop: The Rise of the Rescue Industry, Remaking Police and Military, Gender and Empire for Human Security Interventions. Bristol University, Bristol. 10 March.

Professional and community service

Editor, Indonesia Votes, New Mandala, 2014

John Monash WA/NT Board (2011-2013)

Asialink (2011)

 

Publications

Chapters

  • Baker, J., (2015),Professionalism without reform: The security sector under Yudhoyono,In: The Yudhoyono Presidency, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pages 114 to 135.

Journals

  • Baker, J., (2015), The Rhizome State: Democratizing Indonesia's Off-Budget Economy, Critical Asian Studies, 47, 2, pages 309 - 336.
  • Baker, J., Milne, S., (2015), Dirty Money States: Illicit Economies and the State in Southeast Asia, Critical Asian Studies, 47, 2, pages 151 - 176.

Journal Articles 

Baker, J & Milne, S, 2015, Dirty Money States: Illicit Economies and the State in Southeast Asia Critical Asian Studies June Vol. 47, No. 2. pp 151-172.

Baker, J, 2015, The Rhizome State: Democratizing Indonesia’s Off-Budget Economy Critical Asian Studies June Vol. 47, No. 2. pp 309-336.

Baker, J, 2014, Remembering to Forget, Critical Asian Studies March Vol 46. No. 1

Baker. J. 2013. The “Parman” Economy: Post-Authoritarian Shifts in Indonesia’s Illicit Security Economy Indonesia, Vol. 96 pp. 123-150.

Book Chapters

Professionalism without reform: TNI and Polri under SBY. 2015. Indonesia Update: The Yudhoyono Years. ISEAS Press, Singapore.

Editorials and Review Articles 

2015

 

 

 

 

2014

2013
2012
2011
2010
  • “Arrested Development”, 2010, Van Zorge Report Vol X, September.

2008

2001-03
  • 13. ‘Education Reform in Indonesia’, 2003, Gatra Special Edition, November (In Bahasa Indonesia).
  • ‘Laskar Jihad’, 2001, Inside Indonesia Nov-Jan edition,

Other Media

  • Schonhardt, Sarah. ‘Could Indonesia’s Jokowi Take a Lesson from Obama? 2014. Wall Street Journal. October 13. http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2014/10/13/could-indonesias-jokowi-take-a-lesson-from-obama/
  • Speaker on Hack, Triple J. 24 July 2014.
  • Vit, Jonathon, 2014, Jokowi Widodo is Indonesia’s Reformist President Elect Vice. 23 July. http://www.vice.com/read/joko-widodo-is-indonesias-reformist-president-elect
  • Indonesian Election Coverage. ABC 24. 3 July.
  • Sagita D & Pearl, H, 2014, Presidential Candidates offer More But Not Enough to Sway Swing Voters’ The Jakarta Globe. 16 June.  http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/presidential-candidates-offer-enough-sway-swing-voters
  • Fitzgerald, Stephen, 2013 “New perspectives on Indonesian massacres”, The Australian, April 16.  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/film/new-perspectives-on-indonesian-massacres/story-e6frg8pf-1226621062543
  • Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue, 30 March 2013, http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/indonesia-series/459756
  • Bachelard, Michael, 2012, ‘Blind eye to bikies in paradise’, December 15, Sydney Morning Herald, http://www.smh.com.au/national/blind-eye-to-bikies-in-paradise-20121214-2besq.html
  • ‘Polisi Brutal, Masyarakat Gugat’, Hukum dan Keadilan, Radio 68H, 23 January 2012.  (Invited expert on national talkback radio in Indonesia on police human rights abuses).
  • ‘Australia Targets “flourishing” Environmental Crime’, 2011, ABC The World Today. 23 September. http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3324074.htm, rebroadcast on Asia Calling 1 October 2011.