The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Brave coup survivor Sean Turnell stood up to tyranny

In the two months since his release, Sean Turnell had expected all manner of mental demons and nightmares to visit him — but they never came.

Life after prison … Sean Turnell enjoys the fresh air at Barangaroo on Sydney Harbour. Picture: Chris Pavlich

In the two months since his release, Sean Turnell had expected all manner of mental demons and nightmares to visit him during his most vulnerable moments – but they never came.

The Australian economist, who was arrested by Myanmar’s military junta in February 2021 and spent 650 days in prison, said he has adjusted to life after jail, and manages to “keep any dark thoughts at bay” as he gradually rediscovers the freedoms of home.

“I’ve started to get worried that I’m not worried! I’m thinking to myself where’s all that trauma I’m supposed to have, but I’m just so happy to be home and I’ve managed to keep the dark thoughts out,” Professor Turnell told The Australian.

“I’m often going on walks along the harbourfront, through Darling Harbour, Barangaroo Reserve, the Rocks, and into Circular Quay, and just catching up with family, friends and reacquainting myself with current affairs,” he said.

“I’m just getting back down to practical things, and absorbing everything about the great life in Australia, like going down to the harbour and having picnics and watching the ships come in through the sunlight. It’s all been magnificent.”

A former Reserve Bank official, Professor Turnell worked as an economic adviser to the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, and continued to advise her after she was dramatically overthrown in a coup d’etat in February 2021.

Professor Turnell said the last time he spoke with the controversial Burmese politician, who remains in solitary confinement in Naypyidaw, was in September at their closed court sentencing.

The mild-mannered academic was sentenced to three years behind bars on trumped-up charges that he breached the country’s state secrets act. He was released in November last year, alongside 6000 other political prisoners, after Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong raised his case in a series of bilateral meetings during the ASEAN conference in early November.

In his 6m by 2.5m cell, Professor Turnell said he “never tried to become too introspective” despite the isolation and interrogations.

“I think I must have been quite old fashioned in the way I survived in prison because I was inspired by some of those great old Second World War escape stories that I used to read as a kid, like Paul Brickhill’s The Great Escape and other stories about the ace Douglas Bader and Weary Dunlop.

“I was just thinking ‘OK, I need to shape up here and aspire to those kind of ideals’.”

When he reunited with his wife, Ha Vu, and returned to Australia, Professor Turnell was praised by the Prime Minister as a man of “courage, optimism and resilience” in a special tribute inside the House of Representatives.

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the form above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Friday, January 20.