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Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake

Strange things are happening in green jumbo territory these days. With the exposure of the machinations behind the liberal use of tippex that resulted in the UNP's nomination list for Colombo being disqualified, there is a great deal of elephant dung thrown at each other by the two main sides in the city jumbo battle.

It's a battle where even the age of its members has become an issue. When Mohamed accuses the Maharoof/Moragoda duo of having spoilt the turf for the jumbos in the CMC elections, Maharoof hits back with a blow about the 85 year age of Mohamed.

We all know what Mohamed did when he was younger and was seated in the Speaker's Chair in Parliament at the time of the impeachment against President Premadasa. Obviously from the Maharoof point of view, Mohamed was younger and more calculating at that time.

Good Old Mohamed from Borella may have had his day but it seems below the belt when one strikes at his age to deflect his charges. No doubt he is much more mature than Maharoof, and has more of the political animal in him, which first surfaced when he joined the Communist Party as a youth. At least he knew how to get away with arranging for MPs to withdraw their signatures from the Premadasa impeachment motion.

In Maharoof's case, despite his comparative youth, being far from 85, he clearly lacks much in maturity, as seen by the way he has been exposed in this issue over the UNP's nomination list for the CMC.

Veteran jumbo, Sangadasa alleges that Maharoof sought to bribe him by dropping a cheque for Rs. 500,000 in his mailbox, with ten times more on offer. Maharoof's response to this, and through his lawyers too, is simply puerile and not one that is expected of a seasoned political fighter.

There's more than a touch of the corrupt and dirty in Maharoof's explanation that the date on the cheque was not written by him. What matters is really whether the signature is his, which he admits. We are all expected to swallow the tale that the cheque for Rs, 500,000, was issued undated on account of additional legal fees for a lawyer.

This is the stuff that is best said to the Marines or the Chinese with plaited hair as the Sinhalese would say it. What makes the story hilarious, in addition to being badly concocted, is that the undated but signed cheque, written in April 2003 was drawn on a cheque of a bank that is now defunct, in which both Maharoof and Milinda Moragoda had interests, not just in having deposits but in its management.

It is possible for Maharoof to have thought that signing an undated cash cheque is quite in order, after the crooked mastery of the UNP's former leader JRJ getting all the MPs of the party to give him signed but undated letters of resignation.

Such undated documentation may be OK in the dirty world of politics. But in the more refined area of banking, undated cheques are not only discouraged, but are considered as being against the laws that control banking.

Of course this takes one's attention to the questionable banking background of the Maharoof/Moragoda duo; now at the centre stage of controversy over the UNP's failed list of candidates for the CMC polls.

What on earth was Maharoof's attorney-at-law, Iqbal Mohamed, doing without presenting this cheque for Rs. 500,000 to the bank all this time? He must be a rare lawyer indeed not to take his fee. Or, was the Fundamental Rights petition for which it was additional payment dismissed, in a "no win - no fee" agreement? In any event it's interesting how an undated cheque given to Maharoof's lawyer, ends up in the mailbox of Mr. Sangadasa? All this is certainly more puzzling than what would happen to the UNP's hopes of capturing power at the CMC through a list of Independents.

While the Maharoof-Mohamed battle is on in Colombo, the infighting among the green elephants on the larger national turf also promises exciting days ahead.

Mahinda of Devundara who did the leap from the PA to the UNP led by Sakala Banda, says he was first assured by Der Green Fuhrer Ranil Wickremesinghe that he would be the UNP's organizer for the Matara District and candidate for Devundara.

He has refused to accept Ranil's letter relieving him of both his position of Matara District Organizer and his place in the UNP's Working Committee.

The Dark Mahinda, well-known for bashing undergraduates protesting lack of employment, has now decided to take on Der Fuhrer himself. Mahinda Wijesekera issued his challenge to Ranil to try and get him out of the Working Committee on April 5, the anniversary of the day he, under the nom de guerre of Loku Athula, made the failed attempt to kidnap Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike in the JVP's futile uprising in 1971. Will he succeed in ousting Der Fuhrer Ranil?

No doubt he will receive help from Sakala Banda, who fled the local polls when he judged the going was bad and did some strategic planning in Australia, comes back to carry out his pledge to raise the injured and fallen elephant back to its feet and get it fighting fit.

The battle lines of the green elephants extend from Colombo to Devundara and beyond, with the missiles used by the rival sides being heaps of jumbo dung.

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