Many of our public officials deserve the contempt they are treated with in writings that appear in social media, but some keyboard warriors get so consumed by their need to express hatred that they become, to paraphrase Nietzsche, the monsters they fight.

The Atria Shopping Gallery in Petaling Jaya recently set up a space with boards for patrons to write their Chinese New Year wishes on. When the management found that one of the wishes was for the Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife to “to fall into a drain”, it posted a disclaimer and said “politically sensitive and possibly defamatory” messages would be removed.

This provoked some netizens to accuse the establishment of being a “crony mall” and to protest against the perceived violation of the right to free speech. Some declared they would boycott the mall. That should be good news to Atria. It can do without shoppers who miss the point of the CNY initiative.

This is not to say that one could not call for the PM’s resignation, as many have done in comments on Najib’s Facebook page. But the rudeness displayed in the message at Atria, because it was so crude, was uncalled for. Even Najib’s harshest critics would agree that the insolence was off-putting. Bersih, for instance, denounced the stomping on pictures of Najib and PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang in its last rally. Being culturally insensitive won’t win anyone accolades. Worse, it could backfire and attract sympathisers to the object of hatred.

It makes perfect sense for Atria, as a business establishment, to be apolitical. It has to please as many customers as it can. Those who called it a “crony mall” must have assumed that it would not have removed messages expressing wishes for Anwar Ibrahim to rot in prison or for Azmin Ali to step down from his position as Menteri Besar.

And to say that Atria does not respect “freedom of speech” is to display ignorance of what the phrase means. Would we accept it if a public official were to say something offensive? If he cited his freedom to speak, would we then have to forego demanding that he be charged, say, with sedition?

It is disturbing to think that all this could be a reflection of the immaturity of some of our voters. They’ll probably vote for candidates who display similar behaviour.