I imagine this piece will be one of several on the subject but, just like a car crash, I’m struggling to look away and not write about the big, red elephant in the room.

I have spent much of my life trying to understand people. I love hearing diverse opinions and stories. I believe everyone has their reasons for being who they are, and I have always tried to see the best in people. I don’t consider myself naïve but I am perhaps hopeful, too hopeful.

Historically, the Maltese have always been somewhat mercenary. I don’t have the column space to go into all the instances where we could have been more charitable but if you read the accounts on cholera you would realise that, even 200 years ago, many Maltese preferred to leave their families to die in the streets than put themselves at risk. Then there’s our hellbent inclination to being servile and preserving the status quo.

In the 1960s, anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain gave a talk entitled ‘Why do the Maltese ask so few questions?’. His takeaway was that we are not encouraged to be inquisitive and that many of us seem happy to accept the infallibility of those we consider superior to us. The truth about who we are has always been in our history and anthropology books but many of us were too blind or optimistic to see it.

When Labour came to power 11 years ago, I had no idea how the country would be turned inside out.

As scandal after scandal was uncovered and Joseph Muscat was unceremoniously forced out of parliament, I kept thinking that my fellow citizens would somehow try to join the dots and do their own mathematics as expensive item after expensive item was paraded but I forgot the one cardinal rule that I already mentioned above: the Maltese don’t question.

I had never seen anyone literally applauding alleged theft until very recently- Anna Marie Galea

And, perhaps more importantly, what these last 11 years have taught me is that most of the Maltese don’t really care as long as their party of choice is in power.

The former prime minister and his accused coterie understand their people like no one else. Unlike the perpetually floundering Nationalist Party, still harping on corruption to a people who have shown little concern about being morally bankrupt, they saw the vast majority of the islanders as they were. And when you see people for what they are, you can give them what they want.

Seeing the crowd outside the courts a few days ago, upset and indignant that their country’s institutions were merely doing their job, I wasn’t as sad as I thought I would be. Hearing the mini interviews, it quickly became apparent that it won’t matter what evidence is brought: there will always be another scapegoat, another rumour to spread, another buzzword to use. And, of course, as usual, no one will inquire any further than what the party has told them.

I am not dismissing anyone; I’m just stating what seems to be. I had never seen anyone literally applauding alleged theft until very recently.

To any opposition that wants to be in a chance of actually providing an opposition, take off your rose-tinted glasses and look your people squarely in the face. They’re telling you they’re disinterested in what you’re offering and, perhaps, you should believe them.