Anil Moonesinghe (15 February 1927 – 8 December 2002) was a Sri Lankan [Trotskyist] revolutionary politician. He became a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet Minister, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and a Diplomat. He authored several books and edited newspapers and magazines. He was Chairperson and General Manager of a State corporation. He briefly held the honorary rank of Colonel.
Background
Anil Moonesinghe was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), on 15th February 1927. A member of the family of [Anagarika Dharmapala], he was brought up with Buddhist and Sinhalese nationalist values, as well as an abhorrence of the colonial power, Britain.
Education
He went to school at Royal College, Colombo, an elite school which produced many radicals as well as civil servants and bourgeois politicians. He organised a brigade of boys to aid the Japanese if they landed on the island and earned the nickname 'Rommel'. Later he became influenced by communism (he wrote in praise of the Red Air Force) and specifically by Trotskyism.
He went on to University College, Colombo (which later became Colombo University), won an exhibition to the University of London and went to Britain in 1945. He sailed on board a troopship; when the news of Churchill's defeat at the general election came through, all the soldiers on board threw their caps in the air and cheered, a fact which greatly encouraged him.
At University College, London, he studied law. There he met his future wife, Jeanne Hoban - a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) whom he converted to Trotskyism - and joined the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). He was associated with the group around [Tony Cliff], the so-called 'State-Caps' after their characterisation of the USSR as 'State-Capitalist'. The group later became the Socialist Workers Party (UK) [1]. Through the group he got to know Max Shachtman.
Marriage
He married Jeanne Hoban in 1948 and they moved into a houseboat called 'Red October', which they built together, on the Thames near Marlow. They both entered the Labour Party in Slough. Anil was a speaker for the National Council of Labour Colleges, while Jeanne was elected to the Executive of the Labour Leagues of Youth, later being put on the list of Labour Parliamentary candidates. They were both associated with the MP for Slough Fenner Brockway and with George Padmore, the prophet of Black African Liberation.
LSSP Days
His parents summoned Anil urgently back to Colombo in 1952. He was called to the Bar and practised law all over the island. He and Jeanne joined the [Lanka Sama Samaja Party] (LSSP) and worked in the Lanka Estate Workers' Union (LEWU), which organised labourers on the tea and rubber plantations. At the time the British were still very powerful on the island, inspite of Ceylon having obtained a form of independence in 1948. The British planters prevailed upon the government to deport Jeanne, but she went into hiding and the LSSP successfully fought to prevent the deportation.
In 1954 the LEWU sent him to the Mohomediya Estate in Agalawatte to organise a strike there. He was so successful that the Agalawatte Local of the LSSP asked for him to be sent as the Party's parliamentary candidate for the constituency. In 1956 he won the election for this seat in Parliament representing Agalawatte for 11 years. He worked hard for his constituency, building roads and schools through self-help and worked for the welfare of the poorest sections, particularly for the neglected so-called lower castes.
He also successfully contested the Dematagoda Ward of the Colombo Municipal Council, but found that working in Agalawatte took up too much time for him to devote any to his ward work. He was elected to the Central Committee of the LSSP and then onto its Political Bureau (Politburo).
In 1956 he spoke in Parliament condemning the Soviet invasion of Hungary. In 1960, Yugoslavia opened an Embassy in Colombo, and he unofficially advised the new ambassador on operating in Sri Lanka.
Minister
At the 1964 LSSP conference, he was aligned with Dr NM Perera on the question of whether or not to enter the Coalition Government of Mrs Bandaranaike. The Party did enter the Government and he became one of the first three Trotskyist cabinet ministers. He received the portfolio of Communications (Transport) and set to work to build up the country's transport resources. He established Workers' Committees to help run the Ceylon Government Railway and the Ceylon Transport Board (CTB). He obtained a large parcel of land in the centre of Colombo for establishing a Central Bus Station (CBS). The construction of the new International Airport at Katunayake (a former RAF base which had been taken over in 1957) was also started by him. However, the Government was defeated shortly thereafter and he was unable to complete his work.
In 1967 he lost his Parliamentary seat on an election petition, although the LSSP retained the Agalawatte seat at the subsequent bye-election. He was editor of the daily Janadina newspaper for a short while around this time. He visited Czecholovakia during the 'Prague Spring' and later wrote a book condemning the Soviet invasion.
He set about organising the United Corporations and Mercantile Union (UCMU) which brought together workers in government corporations. He went around the country from factory to factory and built up a union of several tens of thousands of members. At the 1970 General Election, the UCMU sponsored the candidature of novice Mahinda Rajapakse, who was later to become Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
CTB Chairman
After the 1970 election, at which the United Front (UF) won a landslide victory, the workers at the CTB spontaneously established workers' committees and took over the running of the institution. They also asked for Anil Moonesinghe to be made Chairman of the Board. The new Government therefore appointed him Chairman and General Manager. Thus began the most successful years of the CTB as an institution. The services were expanded and measures were taken to improve efficiency, including rationalising bus types. He started buying buses from the Isuzu Company of Japan, in order to offset any cartelisation by Tata and Ashok Leyland, the main suppliers, and also purchased Csepel buses from Hungary. He also took measures to build up local industry and the CTB became well equipped with foundries and workshops. In 1974 he started the assemply of bus chassis. For the last two of the five years he was there, the CTB ran at a profit, while providing a service which was never previously or subsequently matched.
In 1971, when the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP - People's Liberation Front) staged an insurrection, he formed a 2,000-strong para-military body, the Hansa Regiment, from among the employees of the CTB to guard bus depots, bus stands and workshops. He also created 'CANTAB', a secret intelligence organisation. JVP cadres would prefer to surrender to the Hansa Regiment as this was known not to execute or torture prisoners.
At this time he also joined the editorial board of 'The State', a theoretical journal of the LSSP, published in three languages.He was briefly employed at this time, by the Government of Guyana, as a consultant on transport.
At the break-up of the UF, he resigned from the CTB. He contested the 1977 election from the Matugama constituency, which lay next to Agalawatte. He was narrowly beaten into third place by the sitting member of the SLFP. He then became Deputy secretary of the LSSP. In 1980, he was arrested for his part in the General Strike, but later released without any charges being made. At this time he wrote a book on the repression of the Solidarity union in Poland.
SLFP Days
He split from the LSSP in 1982 over its refusal to go into coalition with Mrs Bandaranaike's [Sri Lanka Freedom Party] (SLFP). He supported Hector Kobbekaduwa at the Presidential Election of that year. In 1983 he joined the SLFP and contested the Matugama seat at a bye-election and won. He represented Matugama until 1989 and then was one of the MPs for Kalutara District until 2000. During the 'White Terror' of 1988-90, he was active in saving hundreds of suspects from summary execution. At one point he had to threaten an Army commandant with attack.
In opposition, he was the spokesperson for Transport and expected to recive that portfolio in the event of the SLFP returning to power. However, after its 1994 victory, the new Prime Minister, Chandrika Kumaratunga did not make him a Minister. Instead, he became Deputy Speaker of Parliament. Soon after this, he was elected President of the Mahabodhi Society, a Buddhist Missionary organisation headquartered in Colombo.
In 2000 he was appointed Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Vienna, accredited to Austria, the UN, the former Yugoslav republics, Hungary, the Czech republic and Slovakia. After the victory of the UNP at the general election of December 2001, he was recalled.
He died on 8th December 2002. He left four children, Janaki, Vinod, Previn and Priyanka, the last two by a second marriage to Joan de Zilva.