Sean Turnell on Myanmar, civil war and reforms

Australian economist Sean Turnell has released his latest book ‘Best Laid Plans’, which details his efforts to lift Myanmar out of deep poverty as policy adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi before she was ousted in a military coup in early 2021. were imprisoned.

He spent 650 days behind bars Myanmar was plunged into civil war by a military that ended an all-too-brief experiment with democracy and has since proven itself as ill-prepared on the battlefield as on the economic front, with the country’s finances in tatters.

Turnell spoke to The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about his new book and the technocrats who have turned the country around and prepared it for trade and investment with the outside world, including China – a difficult country that requires a step-by-step approach – under Aung’s leadership San Suu Kyi. leadership.

Like many others, he says the military led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing cannot win the civil war and when the conflict is over, he expects these technocrats to return to their homelands and an era of post-war reconstruction.

“Best Plans: The Inside Story of Reform in Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar” Published by Penguin Books, it provides a script for what needs to be done to rebuild the country.

But as Turnell notes, that will also depend on the post-war political situation that will be eradicated among the many ethnic groups fighting to free Myanmar from military dictatorship and for their own independence.

Turnell is a former director of the Myanmar Development Institute. He is currently an Honorary Professor of Economics at Macquarie University and a Senior Fellow in the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute.