The statement Dr. Colvin R de Silva is supposed to have made, regarding Sinhala being made the official language "two languages, one nation, one language two nations," is being repeated  ad nauseam, even though there had been a change in his line of thinking subsequently. In ‘The Island’ of December 6 2008, Shanie too refers to his earlier position.

Dr Colvin R. de Silva presumably made this statement at the time the Official Language Act was passed. That was in 1956. But as the chief architect of the 1972 Constitution, he accepted the Official Language policy laid down in the Official Language Act No 33 of 1956 and the Tamil Language (Special Provision) Act No 28 of 1958 as would be evident from Section 7 and section 8 (1) of the said constitution.

Nihal Jayawickrema, Secretary, Ministry of Justice at the time of the drafting of the constitution, has clarified the stand taken by Dr. Colvin R. de Silva in a contribution he made to the ‘Sunday Island’ of July 15, 2007. He says; "inexplicably, Colvin  did insist on providing constitutional status to the Official Language Act which he had strenuously opposed in 1956. Colvin apparently decided to put the issue beyond the jurisdiction of any court by providing constitutional status to the language law."

I suppose the above should clarify the position subsequently taken by Dr. Colvin R. de Silva on the language issue. Those who quote his previous statement might be either ignorant of the above facts or are trying to mislead the public!