Mr MGG Pillai is one of the most distinguished journalists Malaysia has produced, an almost legendary figure among the country's scribes. He is a respected writer and commentator both nationally and internationally. During the ongoing Malaysian political crisis, he has been fearless and direct, especially in his pieces for malaysiakini, and has no doubt enhanced his already formidable reputation.

His reaction to the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks has thus been a totally unpleasant surprise. He displays an almost visceral hatred for what can only be assumed to be the so-called 'US establishment'.

It almost seems like he has been subjected to some kind of personal affront at some point in the past by 'US interests'.

Mr Pillai, over the course of the last week, has constructed a number of rambling, sweeping, totally one-sided geopolitical excuses to justify the appalling events of Sept 11.

One could engage in a debate with Mr Pillai and come up with a bushel of glaring inconsistencies in his finger-pointing. And it must be said though that there are probably kernels of truth in some of his arguments.

But in the end, it is all so petty, inconsequential and totally insensitive to the memory of the more than 5,000 people from 40 countries whose lives have been lost and the thousands of their loved ones whose lives have been permanently scarred.

It is disappointing that a man of Mr Pillai's pedigree is among those who just don't fathom the magnitude and far-reaching consequences for humanity itself of the events of Sept 11.