Sean Turnell,right,with Aung San Suu Kyi,centre,and Frank Lowy,left,at the Lowy Institute in 2013.Credit:Peter Morris/Lowy Institute
More than 350 colleagues and supporters of Dr Turnell,a professor of economics at Macquarie University,have signed the petition in the hope of diplomatic breakthrough.
“His credibility and ethics are exemplary,” the petition states. “His detention is unjustified. We call for his immediate release,without charge.”
Suu Kyi,the international democratic icon,will face court on Wednesday for the first time since she was detained by the military on unsubstantiated claims of election fraud on February 1. The leader of the National League for Democracy,who spent 15 years under military house arrest prior to 2010,was charged for breaches of export and import laws after six banned walkie-talkie radios were found in a raid of her house in the capital Naypyitaw.
An armoured vehicle moves through Yangon on Sunday.Credit:Getty Images
Nicholas Coppel,Australia's former ambassador who left Myanmar in 2019,said while the range of actions that are open to the rest of the world are limited,it was important for public statements to continue to provide moral support for pro-democracy leaders.
“There is not much assistance that much of the world can provide,” he said.
Dismissing suggestions that China was involved in the coup,Coppel said Beijing’s main foreign policy interest in Myanmar was the stability of the border region. He said Myanmar’s former leader Suu Kyi had courted Beijing through the Belt and Road Initiative,while the military had cancelled business deals,angering the Chinese Communist Party.