Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan has developed love-hate relationship with Twitter, an Internet social networking service.

"I increasingly love it but I also hate it," he said after joining a fun bike at his office building`s compound here on Sunday.

He said he opened Twitter account @iskan_dahlan after Metro TV presenter Najwa Shihab asked him to do it and started to be active in it on April 12, 2012. He said he has now had 33,951 followers.

He said he initially did not actively respond to the twits of his followers because many of them contained provocative comments, curses, insults although there were also sympathetic comments.

He however has now found that they actually described what the world is really like. There are people who are bad, good, mischievous and polite. There are also negative and positive things as well as sincere criticisms, he explained.

So, he said he concluded that the positive side of the microblog had to be taken advantage of to help him in carrying out his job and also for fun.

"I bring questions on state-owned companies for discussion to meeting but I will treat provocative messages as fun," he said.

Dahlan said his favorite time for tweeting was at dawn, while on a toll road or in a traffic jam and at night before going to bed.

"I do not always tweet. Because if I do I will have no time to work," he added.

This month his account celebrates its first anniversary and Dahlan said he has now become more skillful in interacting with his followers.

It is never too late to open a twitter account, he said commenting on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s recent decision to open Twitter account @SBYudhoyono.

"President Yudhoyono`s decision is a positive step as it could be a way for him to get closed to the public," he said.

He said he thought government officials have to be active in social networking whether it is Twitter or Facebook and others.

"For me however Twitter is fun and interesting," he added.

reporting by Royke Sinaga
(H-YH/F001)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013