Although they received their invitations on the very day of the function, four Opposition MPs attended the opening ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the Americas at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain on Friday.

MPs Tim Gopeesingh, Vasant Bharath, Chandresh Sharma and Roodal Moonilal attended the function, which their colleagues blanked. While Opposition MPs were invited to the opening, Independent Senators were invited to the dinner on Saturday night.

Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she got a call from the Opposition Office on Friday morning informing her that they had an invitation for her.

’But in any event I had taken a decision that I would not attend. Not just because of the lateness of the invitation, but also given what we had said about this summit and the squandermania involved in it,’ she said. She said if the Opposition had been invited to ’things of substance’ (the discussions) as opposed to ’the eats and drinks’, she would have taken a different position.

St Augustine MP Bharath, who received his invitation around noon Friday, said on Saturday, ’The fact is that the money was already spent and yesterday (Friday) was an opportunity for Trinidad and Tobago to be highlighted on an international stage and I felt that it was important to me to go and celebrate and support Trinidad and Tobago.’

Moonilal said he thought US President Barack Obama’s speech was well crafted and that the cultural presentation was excellent, although the inclusion of an East Indian artiste would have made the show more complete.