Jayatilleke De Silva

Jayatilleke de Silva (Sinhala:ජයතිලක ද සිල්වා) (14 June 1938 – 26 February 2019) was a Sri Lankan author, translator, journalist, a left political and a civil society activist.

Early life and education

De Silva was born in Ambalangoda-Batapola, Nindana Village in 1938 and commenced his preliminary studies at Hikkaduwa Central College. Then he continued his student life at Dharmasoka College and Ananda College, Colombo. He was a Graduate in Mathematics from the University of Ceylon, Colombo and he later studied Political Economy at the Institute of Social Sciences, Moscow. He chose his initial profession to be teaching. After a short period as the Principal of Deniyaya Central College, he left the teaching to pursue a full-time career in politics.

Political career

He started his political career from the Sri Lanka Communist Party, of which he was an active member for a few decades. He served as the President in the Educational Bureau of the party and as the secretary of the Youth Federation. Later he was automatically appointed to the Party's Central Committee and the Political board. He associated with The Communist Party of the Soviet Union as well as Cuba while he was a member of the Sri Lanka Communist Party. During the 1980s himself and majority of its members left the Communist Party and Socialist Peoples Movement (සමාජවාදි ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය) was formed. During the later stages he devoted his time on helping and advising Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.

De Silva was an active committee member of the Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine, and the Journalists for Global Justice organisation.

Journalism career

His first foray into journalism was from the Aththa newspaper of the Communist Party. As editor of Mawbima and Forward newspapers, he dedicated most of his time to the party's ideological and youth activities. He later joined the Daily News newspaper in the late 1990s and continued his journalism in English medium. De Silva's bilingual writing ability paved the way for him to become the Editor in Chief of the Daily News in year 2001. Later he was appointed as the Chief Editor of the Sunday Observer in 2003. He has regularly contributed to the media on international relations and global issues for over four decades.

Author

De Silva translated the three volume Karl Marx's treatise on the socialist model, Das Kapital to Sinhala. He was proficient in both Sinhala and English and wrote books in both languages. He contributed to the panel of judges to select the best translations of the year at several literary festivals organized by the State Literary Advisory board.