The Real Naturists of the Year 2014: Malaysia Nude Games

Previous choices as my Real Naturist of the Year were mostly people living in countries where naturism might not be generally known and prevalent, but at least they were free to promote naturism, to take part in naturist activities, or to run naturist resorts.
This year, the situation was different. Several naturists in Malaysia were questioned, detained, fined and even sentenced to prison for organizing a nude sports event which nobody even saw until it was distributed on the Internet.
The Malaysia Nude Games took part on the tourist island of Penang on Malaysia's northwest coast during the first half of the year. I saw the video of the event - which later circulated online and caused the legal problems - in Thailand in early June.
As could be expected, the Nude Games were just that: a series of innocent beach games, on a much smaller and more modest scale than naturist athletic events taking part every summer in parts of Europe.
The galling thing about all the legal fuss is that nobody actually witnessed the Nude Games and complained about it to the authorities as they happened. The only complaints were based on the video which was placed online later. In other words, nobody outside naturist circles actually knew of the event before or when it happened, so there was no reason for anybody to be offended.
While the Nude Games were at the time seen by the naturist community as a breakthrough for naturism in East Asia, where most countries still ban the practice, the treatment given to organizers and participants will scare off future naturist events in Malaysia, even if they are being held behind closed doors.
For their bravery, and as a sign of support for naturists fighting against persecution, we named the organizers and participants in the Malaysia Nude Games as the Real Naturists of the Year 2014.
You will find an account of the event on this Malaysian blog http://psantubong1.blogspot.tw/2014/08/malaysia-nude-sports-games-2014.html
and a media report at
http://hype.my/newsdesk/nsfw-malaysia-nude-sports-games-2014/
The video of the event seems to have been taken down.
As a sign of sympathy and support, naturists in San Francisco staged their own Nude Games last October: http://www.mynakedtruth.tv/2014/09/we-need-your-donations-malaysia-nude-beach-games-in-san-francisco-october-4-2014/

The Nude Guru

Asianaturist has tried for six years to report about naturism in Asia in general and Taiwan in particular, while trying to promote the practice of healthy non-sexual social nudity in the region.

Since naturism is still banned in most countries in the area and news about naturism in the region is few and farbetween - despite recent positive developments in Thailand and Malaysia - I have decided that the blog has served its purpose and a new approach is necessary.

The Nude Guru will continue on the same lines as the Asianaturist blog but on a global scale. We already brought you reports about naturism in Italy and other places, and brought you the Real Naturist of the Year and Celebrity Naturist of the Year Awards without any obvious Asian connection.

The new line will follow all that's good and bad about the naturist world and discuss it with you here and on Twitter. Free beaches, nude yoga, World Naked Bike Ride, Spencer Tunick's mass nude art, public breastfeeding and breast cancer, everything will find its place here, as long as it is related to healthy naturism. As on other naturist sites, if you are looking for exhibitionism and pornography, this will not be the place to visit.

The Nude Guru wishes you a warm naturist winter and looks forward to sharing naturism with you here on this blog and at http://twitter.com/thenudeguru.

Malaysia: The Victim Resigns

Should a politician whose nude pictures have been published, resign?
The answer is no, in a case when A-the pictures have nothing to do with sex, B-the pictures are not illegal, and C-the pictures were distributed without the knowledge of the politician.
That's exactly what happened in Malaysia this month with Elizabeth Wong, a human rights campaigner and promising member of parliament for the opposition.
Her boyfriend took pictures of her sleeping at home without clothes on - just like thousands or millions of people around the world - but when he was her boyfriend no more he distributed the pictures by cellphone to harm her.
The result: Elizabeth Wong resigned. Of course she shouldn't have. She was only sleeping at home. If there is any 'moral outrage,' it should be directed not at her for doing something so completely normal, but at the former boyfriend for grossly invading her privacy.
Many Malaysian media have luckily come to her support, showing that the upside down morals of some are not generally accepted. Nevertheless, she resigned, completely unnecessarily. In a blow to human rights, privacy, and non-sexual nudity and personal freedom.
You can read Elizabeth Wong's own side of the story at http://elizabethwong.wordpress.com.