SNAP CRISIS 

MARUDI - Sarawak National Party's (SNAP) State Ministers, State Assemblymen and Members of Parliament will abide by any decision made by the Registrar of Society (ROS) on the crisis the party is going through, said Baram Member of Parliament. Jacob Dungau Sagan, yesterday. 

He added if SNAP were to be de-registered by the Registrar of Societies, its ministers and elected representatives would be willing to be temporarily parked in any of the Barisan Nasional(BN) component parties, as suggested by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud recently.

Touching on the 2003 budget presented by Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which allocated 2.5 billion ringgit allocated for rural development he said this would enable the government to concentrate on improving and providing more basic infrastructure such as treated water and electricity supply, clinics and schools to the rural areas.

"We were understand that a good percentage will be allocated specially for Sabah and Sarawak with the emp-hasis on infrastructure development in the rural areas."

Jacob added that the government would stress on basic educational infrastructure and facilities in the rural areas.

" If we want to see rural students have equal opportunity to pursue higher education and we will have to start early ... from kindergartens.

"In Baram particularly we want the children in primary schools to be able to learn and be exposed to Information Technology (IT) to keep up with students in the urban areas."

He disclosed that his request for a community college to be built in Marudi for the Baram constituency had been approved. It is now up to the local authorities to find suitable land in Marudi for the college and the fund would be released after this was done.