A man and his toys

Sabah's Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk
Masidi Manjum has become among the first members of the state cabinet to
tap into the online social network Facebook.

Masidi who signed up for a Facebook account just over a week ago has so
far 200 “friends” in the network that he said was a way
for him to keep tabs on what ordinary folk were thinking or talking about.

“This is a way for me to keep my feet firmly planted on the
ground. There is a danger of losing touch because positions we hold could
isolate us from the man on the street,” Masidi told The Star here
yesterday.

He said Facebook was thus a forum for him to discuss various issues even
petty ones with his “friends” in the network.

“Sometimes it is these trivial matters that could have great
implications,” said Masidi who prefers to update his Facebook
account via his Blackberry mobile phone.

He said his youngest daughter Farhana, 17, encouraged to sign up for
Facebook which has also become a showcase of his amateur photography skills.

Masidi who has eight digital cameras, the latest being a Nikon D5000 said
his travels around Sabah as a minister had presented numerous
opportunities to photograph the state picturesque locations and its people.

“Nothing gives me greater pleasure than showing tourists the
pictures I’ve taken as way of promoting Sabah,” he said in
adding that his favourite subject was Mount Kinabalu in whose shadows he
grew up in his native Kampung Karanaan in Ranau district.

“There is something about the mountain that is almost magical.
Each time I take a picture of it, there seems to be a different facet of
it,” said Masidi in noting that his camera equipped Blackberry
phone contained more than 50 pictures of the mountain.