A man wearing a short pants and slippers was seen holding a big plastic bag and walking around the town of Semporna Sabah.

He picked up rubbish from the drain…that include food containers and bottle left by strangers.

The man was doing the gotong-royong at town with 30 other locals who are divers.

Semporna Professional Divers Association says in its Facebook Page that the man is the director of Sabah Ministry od Tourism, Arts and Culture Ag Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar.

“He works in an air-conditioned office, but took part in this gotong royong without being fussy in picking up rubbish from the drain…food containers, drinking bottles, all sorts of trash.

“He is not from Semporna but he is willing to help the district to become beautiful and clean,”says SPDA chairman.

Its chairman, also known as Joe, posted added that it is a shame to see outsiders help to clean the town and hope the locals will follow suit to keep the tourist destination rubbish-free.

There were about 30 divers and volunteers took part in the cleanup which saw a total of 150 kilogrammes of trash collected within about two hours.

The “gotong royong” activity was planned a few days after the team finished collecting debris off Bum Bum island waters here.

In conjunction with MOTAC’s 2019 International Muslim Friendly Carnival here, a voluntourism underwater cleanup saw 500 kilogrammes of waste including plastics and bottles were picked up by divers.

Ag Ahmad Zaki, was among 30 local and China divers who went to seabed to reduce the amount of trash that is harmful to marine biodiversity.