Gail Alexan­der

While his re­la­tion­ship with late PNM MP Ken Val­ley "was not al­ways smooth," for­mer PNM leader Patrick Man­ning has said he could have re­lied on Val­ley."I'm of the view that the coun­try has lost a son, one of the sons of which I have been very proud and I hope he now finds rest in the bo­som of Almighty God," Man­ning added in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day.Man­ning was among those pay­ing trib­ute to Val­ley who died last week at 63 from can­cer. MPs ob­served a minute's si­lence to ho­n­our Val­ley.Man­ning brought Val­ley in­to the PNM in 1986, but dropped him from PNM's elec­tion team for the 2007 polls.

Yes­ter­day, break­ing his si­lence on his for­mer col­league, Man­ning said: "I couldn't al­low an oc­ca­sion like this to pass with­out mak­ing a small con­tri­bu­tion to what I thought was the very sig­nif­i­cant life of Ken­neth Cyril Val­ley."My re­la­tion­ship with Ken Val­ley wasn't al­ways smooth, but I al­ways sought to treat with him as in­deed, I seek to treat with all oth­ers-with­out fear or favour and with­out af­fec­tion or ill will," the for­mer PNM leader said.

"In 2007, when I thought the time had come for Mr Val­ley to give way to some­body else in Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral, the mat­ter was raised with him and of course he didn't agree."But even­tu­al­ly I did as a po­lit­i­cal leader had to do...I did it with­out fear or favour, with­out af­fec­tion or ill will-and so be it."It in no way di­min­ished the con­tri­bu­tions Mr Val­ley made to the po­lit­i­cal life of T&T or T&T's eco­nom­ic life, nor did it in any way- as far as I was con­cerned-my friend­ship with him or the con­tri­bu­tion he made to T&T."Say­ing Val­ley would go down in the an­nals of PNM his­to­ry and T&T's his­to­ry as a very great war­rior and hard work­ing Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, Man­ning added:

"...One on whom any Prime Min­is­ter could have re­lied-I could have re­lied on Mr Val­ley and I would like to record that al­so."Apart from be­ing a crit­i­cal mem­ber of PNM's speech writ­ing team, Man­ning said Val­ley al­so head­ed a team in 1986, in­clud­ing PNM's Mar­i­ano Browne which for­mu­lat­ed PNM eco­nom­ic pol­i­cy which has seen T&T through some very dif­fi­cult eco­nom­ic times.PNM leader Kei­th Row­ley said Val­ley's life had demon­strat­ed there was ho­n­our in pub­lic ser­vice."He gave his life to the pub­lic ser­vice in T&T and did it with a joie de vivre that was unique," he said."He saw pub­lic ser­vice as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to make a ster­ling con­tri­bu­tion to the so­ci­ety as a whole.

"He was not just big in phys­i­cal size, he was big in heart, he was a hap­py, help­ful, re­li­able per­son."Ken Val­ley was a man for whom work was nev­er too much," Row­ley said, not­ing Val­ley's many port­fo­lios in Gov­ern­ment and his role as a "limer" al­so.Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Gov­ern­ment "would find ways to ho­n­our Val­ley ap­pro­pri­ate­ly."She said Val­ley was a man "who was in every sense of the word, a 'big man.'"Per­sad- Bisses­sar said Val­ley's con­tri­bu­tion was so lu­mi­nes­cent "that to­day Ken Val­ley's light is nei­ther out, nor can it be hid­den un­der a bushel." She said Val­ley showed MPs "the warm per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of the some­times cold prin­ci­ples of the West­min­ster tra­di­tion."

Say­ing the PP Gov­ern­ment would miss Val­ley and would not for­get him, Per­sad- Bisses­sar added: "There is a head­stone in Ire­land which reads: 'Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, but love leaves a mem­o­ry no one can steal.'"PNM MP Colm Im­bert said Val­ley was one of the PNM's "Big Three"-Diego Mar­tin MPs Row­ley, Im­bert and Val­ley- who, he said, were unas­sail­able.Im­bert said Val­ley was big in heart, spir­it and in­tegri­ty, full of life and re­li­able."They don't make politi­cians like that, they broke the mould when they made him-he was a tremen­dous as­set to PNM," Im­bert added.Deem­ing Val­ley a broth­er in the PNM, Im­bert said he will miss him.