Background
He was born to Honorary Justice Arthur Eric Keuneman, a distinguished judge of the Supreme Court, and Majorie Eleanor Shockman, daughter of a wealthy medical doctor from Kandy.
He was born to Honorary Justice Arthur Eric Keuneman, a distinguished judge of the Supreme Court, and Majorie Eleanor Shockman, daughter of a wealthy medical doctor from Kandy.
Keuneman was educated at the Royal College, Colombo where he was the head of the junior cadet platoon, prefect, captain of the debating team and president of the literary association.
Pieter Keuneman came from a Dutch Burgher family. He went on to Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1935 where he became a communist, President of the Cambridge Union and editor of the student magazine Granta. He gained a Bachelor Tripos in History, Sociology and English Literature and joined the Grays Inn to study law leaving without taking his bar examinations.
Later he gained a Master of Arts from Cambridge.
While at Cambridge he worked briefly for the Daily Express, before leaving for Spain to fight against Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. On returning to Ceylon he worked as a features editor at Lake House.
He was an architect of the United Socialist Party which was formed in 1940. He was the its secretary and after it was proscribed by Admiral Geoffrey Layton, the Communist Party of Ceylon was formed at "Cotta" Road in 1943.
During the 1940s he was the Secretary of the Communist Party and launched the journal Forward of which he was the editor in 1944.
In that capacity he agitated for better housing, eradication of slums and shanties in the Colombo city and saw to the setting up of libraries and dispensaries. On his proposal in June 1948 for a Bribery Commission, the first Bribery and Corruption Commission was formed chaired by his father Justice Agricultural Engineer Keuneman. In the 1952 elections, he was elected as the first Member of Parliament for Colombo Central electorate defeating the labour party leader Agricultural Engineer Goonesinghe and retained his seat in the 1956, 1960 and 1970 elections.
He was very critical of the 1962 coup d"état attempt and the 1971 JVP Insurrection.
In 1970, in the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, he held the portfolio of Housing and Construction as a Cabinet Minister. The establishment of the State Engineering Corporation and many housing schemes was his brainchild.
He introduced a controversial floor area limit of 300 square metres on all new private houses. However he lost his seat in the 1977 election and retired from politics.
He was the Cabinet Minister of Housing and Local Government and prominent Member of Parliament and a leading figure in the Communist Party of Sri Lanka(CPSL)
He became a member of the National Congress in 1945. He contested the first Parliamentary elections in 1947 from the Colombo Central constituency and was returned as the 3rd Member of Parliament obtaining 15,435 votes.