KUALA LUMPUR — What one social media user accused of being a parade with LGBT elements turned out to be a Hash House Harriers run in Johor Bahru, but not before three people were arrested for allegedly committing indecent acts.
Johor police arrested the individuals aged 39 to 70, two of whom are foreigners, at a hotel in Kota Tinggi last night.
State police chief Datuk M Kumar said the three tested negative for drugs, and the event they were at was the Pan Asia International Run 2024 held at Kota Tinggi from October 4 to 6, which was organised by the Johor Bahru Hash House Harriers (JBHHH).
“Early investigations revealed that the actions by all three suspects were done in their individual capacities and do not represent the organisers of the event,” Kumar said in a statement.
The case will be classified under Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act 1955 for insulting behaviour and Section 294 of the Penal Code for indecent acts in a public place, Kumar added.
In a separate statement, Johor police said they were alerted to a Facebook post displaying photos of individuals participating in the run, where runners were dressed in red, with some allegedly cross-dressing and engaged in “vulgar” behaviour.
The photos, posted by a Facebook user police named as Mohd Latif Talib, showed two male participants wearing female attire, and another who was shirtless with his buttocks exposed.
In the post, Latif said it appeared the parade had “LGBT groups” because some of them wore rainbow stockings and were “geng2 lembut” (effeminate). He said such an event should not have been organised in an open, public space, more so because the area, Bandar Penawar in Kota Tinggi, was predominantly Malay.
JBHHH president Datuk A. Magendran, however cleared the air, telling the New Straits Times that the running event was themed “Red Dress Run” and was held for charitable purposes.
RM10,001 was raised for children with cerebral palsy, he also told the paper.
He refuted allegations that the event was to promote any form of sexuality and stressed the participants were not cross-dressing to promote LGBT causes.
Magendran added that JBHHH did not intend to offend anyone and is fully cooperating with police.
Hash House Harriers is a global non-competitive running club.
Their events which are called ‘Hashes’ were held in Kuala Lumpur as early as the 1930s, when British expatriates organised runs fashioned after the traditional British game of ‘hare and hounds’, in which one or two runners scatter a trail of cut paper for the “hounds” to track. – October 6, 2024