Manning praises Valley

Better times - Ken Valley and Patrick Manning before their fallout in 2007

Former prime minister Patrick Manning said in a media release Friday Ken Valley played a pivotal role in the renewal of the People's National Movement (PNM), calling his former deputy leader one of the modern stalwarts of the party.

Manning is the man who kicked Valley out even when his constituency executive was demanding that Valley run again as the candidate in the 2007 general election. Despite that Valley supported his successor in Diego Martin Central, Dr Amery Browne. Valley had expressed disappointment in Manning's leadership and predicted Manning's fall.

Manning is the one who invited Valley to join the party and help rebuild it after the defeat in the 1986 election.

"He accepted my invitation to join the resurgence effort and was appointed a senator to help take the party forward. It was a historic appointment, he being one of the first six Opposition senators ever to be appointed by the PNM," said Manning.

"He was extremely effective. He played a pivotal role in the intellectual renewal of the party and was indeed the author of the economic policies that the PNM adopted in 1987 and which we sustained fundamentally till 2010.

"These policies ensured a return to economic growth for Trinidad and Tobago in 1992, after seven years of decline, and constituted the platform for the prosperity that the nation enjoyed in the years afterwards," Manning said.

"Ken helped enormously to make the PNM more attractive to a wider cross-section of citizens. Both the country and the party owe Ken Valley a great debt of gratitude. I was very pleased to appoint him a Deputy Political Leader of the PNM in 1997, a position he held very successfully for just over ten years," said Manning.

"I was also privileged to have him in three Cabinets over which I presided. He was a transformational minister and played the key role in the rationalisation of the State enterprise sector, through which we were able to achieve greater economic efficiency as well as increased attractiveness of Trinidad and Tobago as a destination for direct foreign investment," Manning added.

"Ken Valley was a kind, big-hearted individual, full of warmth and friendship. He always worked very hard and creatively, and made an outstanding contribution to the modern development of Trinidad and Tobago. He will be sorely missed. I know that Almighty God will richly reward him for his earthly endeavours," Manning said.