TWO Saturdays ago, Guyana celebrated its 46th anniversary of Independence with Guyanese across the political divide aware of the lingering possibility of a snap general election being called by President Donald Ramotar.

Neither the president nor his ruling People's Progressive Party (PPP) alluded to such a political development over the weekend at official and political events and meetings.

But speculations of a snap poll are being fuelled by ongoing wranglings, at times quite bitter, between the Government and the alliance of opposition parties — A Partnership for National Unity (26 seats) and Alliance for Change (seven) — which secured a one-seat majority over the PPP's 31 in the 65-member National Assembly at the November 28 General Election last year.

Ever since its return to state power at the first free and fair elections in October 1992, the PPP has been accustomed to securing outright parliamentary victories. However, while it again retained the presidency and emerged with the single largest bloc of votes, the new configuration in Parliament presents an entirely new political challenge for multi-party governance politics.

Conscious as they are of the need for stability and orderly development in Guyana to continue along the path of an enviable economic growth of five per cent over the past four years, both head of state Ramotar and the main Opposition party that dominates the APNU alliance — the People's National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) — chose to separately make encouraging statements for constructive dialogue and compromise.

And, of course, the independence anniversary provided an appropriate occasion. Nevertheless, however grudgingly and expediently expressed, the country's vital and expanding private sector, the labour movement and civil society in general would undoubtedly prefer such sentiments.

Yet talk, and political talk in particular, may be easy. Walking the talk is an entirely different ball game. And, as the saying goes, proof of the pudding rests with the eating.

Therefore, the Guyanese electorate — whose decision last November 28 made possible the surprising current configuration of Parliament — waits to learn how both the PPPC-led Administration of President Ramotar and the PNCR will move to blend expressed sentiments for dialogue and compromise with specific initiatives in the coming weeks and months.

The two-day meeting of the 65-member National Assembly, scheduled to begin on June 7, could well prove a significant occasion to assess how to square "good talk" with "good walk".

It would be the parliamentary sitting at which the Government is expected to submit a supplementary Budget with provisions of some GUY$27 million in expenditures affected by the combined APNU/AFC budget cuts of GUY$21 billion (GUY$200 = USD$1) in the national Budget as originally presented by Finance Minister Ashni Singh.

Reaching out for a compromise and participating in good faith in tripartite discussions, instead of seeking to score political points based on narrow and opportunistic agendas, should be a commitment by both Government and Opposition.

This would require an understanding by the PPPC Administration and the Opposition APNU in particular to come to terms with the harsh reality that one hand can't clap which, in the context of the outcome of the November 28, 2011 verdict by the Guyanese electorate, means the necessity for meaningful dialogue in the national interest.

President Ramotar reaffirmed his commitment, in his address to the nation for the traditional flag-raising ceremony at the National Park two Saturdays ago, to "work with all who would move the country forward..."

And in its press statement the same day, the PNCR pledged to "work with all responsible and reliable forces whose aim is to forge a national consensus which can facilitate the resolution of the many known problems which have bedevilled Guyana and stymied its development..."

Now is not the moment to summon witnesses for those parties and individuals whose partisan, myopic agendas had contributed over the years to institutionalised rigged elections, gross abuse of state power, and the politics of assassination and mob rule that have so deeply affected this nation's social and economic progress.

Rather, the need is for genuine commitment to structured dialogue and compromise — as they have intimated.

It has been said that to forget the past could result in a surrender of the future. It is also true that forgiveness and reconciliation in politics are virtues that can promote transformational change in any nation honestly committed to basic human rights, democratic governance and accountability.

Let's see how the Government and Opposition together meet the "walk-the-talk" challenge.