Colvin R. de Silva

Colvin R. de Silva became the first president of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party when it was established on 21 December 1935 at Lorenz College Hall, along with Dr. N.M. Perera, Leslie Goonewardene, Philip Gunawardena and Robert Gunawardena.

An active Trotskyite, during the Second World War he fled to India, after escaping from Bogambara Prison, where he had been imprisoned on charges of sedition for anti-war activities. In India he became part of the leading nucleus of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma (BLPI). After the war he returned to Ceylon and became the main leader of the Bolshevik Samasamaja Party (BSP).

In 1947 he was one of five BSP candidates who were elected to parliament. His constituency was Wellawatte-Galkissa. After the reunification of LSSP and BSP, de Silva became an important leader of LSSP.

In 1952 he lost the Wellawatte-Galkissa seat to the United National Party candidate, S. de Silva Jayasinghe due to the unpopularity he gained for his role in the Sathasivam murder case, but regained it at the subsequent parliamentary elections in 1956. During the passing of the Sinhala Only Act, he spoke his famous last words: "Do we... want a single nation or do we want two nations? Do we want a single state or do we want two? Do we want one Ceylon or do we want two? And above all, do we want an independent Ceylon which must necessarily be united and single and single Ceylon, or two bleeding halves of Ceylon which can be gobbled up by every ravaging imperialist monster that may happen to range the Indian ocean? These are issues that in fact we have been discussing under the form and appearance of language issue." His predictions came true a few years later with the formation of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and subsequent civil war between the LTTE separatist movement and the Sri Lankan government.[3]

De Silva was responsible on behalf of LSSP for the liaisons with the Fourth International. He was elected to the International Executive Committee of the International, a position he held until the LSSP was expelled from the International.

In 1964 de Silva had urged against the LSSP joining the government, but unlike others who stood by that line he stayed in the party.

He won the Agalawatte parliamentary seat in a by-election in 1967 and in 1970. In 1970 he became the Minister of Plantation Industries and Constitutional Affairs in the cabinet of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. His tasks included drafting the new republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which is seen by Kumari Jayawardena as the first constitutional enshrinement of Sinhala chauvinism which had previously been limited to statute law. He served until 1975, when his party was dismissed from government following a split. He lost his seat at the 1977 parliament elections along with all the leftists who contested.

After the death of Dr. N. M. Perera the LSSP leader, Colvin de Silva became the leader and the party nominated de Silva as its presidential candidate in 1982. He finished 5th and only polled around 1% of the votes cast, as the election was polarised between the ruling United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party – the latter being backed by almost all the other left parties. In 1987 he led a protest against the ban on May Day rallies in Sri Lanka and suffered a serious burn injury on one of his feet due to a tear gas cartridge that was thrown at the protesters by the police, which troubled him till his death. In 1988, his party came to an alliance with three other leftist parties to form United Socialist Alliance (USA) from which he was nominated as a national list member of parliament (MP).