The reason? The Kota Bharu municipal council wanted the male and female participants to be kept separated at “a proper distance” from each other.
“The longstanding policy of the Kelantan government requires males and females taking part in the same public activity to be segregated,” said state exco Abdul Fattah Mahmood, who is in charge of local government, housing, youth and sports.
“We don’t prohibit such activities completely,” he told FMT.
The municipal council’s officers stopped the “Aerobathon” session at Chung Cheng Secondary School in Kota Bharu on the grounds that the men and women participants were not segregated and the organisers had no permit.
Chinese language newspaper Guang Ming Daily reported that the event was held together with a blood donation and a children’s colouring competition.
After negotiations between the officers and the organisers, the aerobics exercise resumed, but without the men.
Kota Bharu MCA chairman Tan Ken Ten said the organisers decided to mix the participants because only a few men took part.
Fattah said the segregation rule would not be enforced if a public event had no Muslim participants.
“If all participants of a programme are non-Muslims, we would respect the right of the non-Muslim community to hold a mixed event,” he said.
He accused the MCA of blowing up the issue for political capital.
“MCA has run out of ideas to attack the state government, so they made an issue of even a minor matter.”