Hardly a week into the goods and services tax (GST) and the citizens are reeling under the silent pains of GST while BN politicians remain gung-ho in singing sweet melodies as they throw their support behind their leader who is also increasingly coming under attack by Umno veterans.

The 6 percent GST is truly putting so much pressure on the consumers and business community.

The forced financial belt-tightening that every family has to furiously subject itself to, is triggering an unquantified psychological and social pressures on Malaysians which the ministers choose to blatantly ignore.

For analysis purposes, let us take a family with a monthly income of RM2,500. There is now - because of the GST - a shrinking of RM150 on the take-home pay.

For the humble wage-earner, RM150 translates to a RM5.77 daily reduction of available cash in the wallet.

That amount is also the average cost of one day's meal under a cherry-tree stall.

People pay the rounding-off amount

But the ugly fact is the 6 percent on all items is being rounded off by business operators.

Do our ministers know how much you have to now pay for a glass of warm or iced-water at a mamak stall?

Housewives are not spared of this nightmare. How much less can they buy to make sure there is a decent meal on the table for a household of five?

While the government of the day under Najib Abdul Razak’s leadership had been adamant in bringing on the GST on April Fool’s Day, hardly a week into this nightmare, we now hear that ministers are debating about monopolies and telcos as the consumers reel under the 6 percent levy imposed by the operators for top-ups.

We need to see this GST agony beyond numbers. We need to not be fooled by the public relations stunt of the PM himself ‘enjoying’ stall food.

Leaders and their blind followers (not really blind as they need to keep their patronising money-and-aid pipelines open), must ask to what extent is the GST putting social and psychological pressures on families and individuals.

How long more can the citizens be punished with this ‘Go, learn to live within your means’ mantra admonished by the powers that be?

Even Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, and Musa Hitam have openly stated that this is not the season for the punishing GST.

The opposition leaders are still echoing the struggles of the working rakyat.

Who cares?

But who cares these days?

The GST is already creating so much of pain in the hearts and homes of Malaysians.

Some even closed shop after all these decades of business. NGOs and not-for-profit organisations are not spared either.

Meanwhile, the debate and confusion of what is and what does not fall under the hammer of the GST is still raging.

Hence, Rafidah Aziz – in her signature no-holds-barred recent public statement – demanded that the “comic” be stripped off the GST promotions. She herself finds it hard to comprehend!

Reacting to the messy start of the GST, people are now asking, “What happened to all our oil money, mate?”

What happened to all the riches of this nation from palm oil to rubber to gold, and export earnings all these decades when the oil price kept soaring?

The government had never failed to peddle that each time the oil price rose, our petrol pump price had to be revised upward because we have to pay higher premiums to purchase this resource.

But nobody wanted to publicly state what happened to the earnings from rising crude oil prices.

Even a member of the royalty complained very recently that he cannot survive on the paltry allowances that the government pays his royal household and therefore, his reasons for opting into business deals.

Find another way?

When the oil prices started plunging, Malaysians were offered a very short relief to enjoy. And after some dilly-dallying, the prices floated but cost of goods did not come down.

And now with GST, the wage-earner consumer once again gets floored on the ring of sufferings.

So, can we blame the people for screaming that they are not happy with the 1MDB dealings?

Do we take offence when the public question and ridicule the recent wedding celebration of the prime minister’s daughter and the controversial spending by his wife?

Do we sledgehammer those who question the money being spent for the new jet being purchased?

Indeed, who then can save this nation? Who then can help the working, slaving population from the psychological and social pains that they are facing now even more acutely, given the merciless and untimely implementation of GST?

Already, the man in the street is saying out aloud, “ Kena cari jalan lah bro. Mana bolih tahan. Bini pun dah bising tak cukup wang nak pi pasar .” (Must find a way, bro. Otherwise, how to cope? The wife is already complaining there is not enough money to shop at the market.)

And that “ cari jalan lain ” (finding another way) is worrying, too.

As the citizens seek out all kinds of means to earn that extra to cover the reduced purchasing power of the household income, you need to to fathom the mental and physical health effects on the working population.

Worse, what about those who will now cut corners or seek out all kinds of corrupt means to make some money?

So, Najib needs to be told that his dream-peddling of RM1 chicken and now the ‘stall food tastes better’ is flawed. The nation of people are suffering mentally and socially.