Nude on the beach? Two different results.

I'm currently in Croatia and am now so richly tanned by the hot summer sun as I basked on the beaches by the Adriatic Sea that most of my friends probably won't be able to recognise me when I'm home. But my tan isn't the sort you see with tan lines delineating where my swimming trunks had been.  You see, I have been tanning myself on a lovely nudist beach in Croatia that is ranked Number 3 among the top nudist beaches in the whole world.

The island on which the nudist beach is located

Entrance to the nudist beach

When I checked my Facebook wall a few days ago, I saw a huge furore in Malaysia over a group of people who went nude on a deserted beach in Penang. The Malaysian police which is generally known to do nothing when you report a real crime such as a burglary, snatch theft or even a robbery, suddenly sprang into uncharacteristic action. As my Facebook friend commented, his neighbour had his house burgled recently and the police said there was nothing they could do. But when a small group of people went naked on a deserted and inaccessible part of Penang in some remote bay, the police gathered its forensic experts and obtained fingerprints and DNA samples.

You may ask why the Malaysian police is treating such an inconsequential act as if it were a serious crime. After all, the Malaysian police is known to do next to nothing when real crimes are reported. A recent report I read online seems to suggest that people in repressive countries such as Pakistan and some Arab states are by far the largest viewers of internet pornography and they too take the cake when it comes to sexual perversion or questionable sexual practices such as bestiality. Whether it's because of the oppression that makes them have a heightened sensitivity to sex is something I am not competent to say but the countries whose people are obsessed with sex and pornography are also the countries where the strongest exception is taken to nudity and naturism.

Naturism or nudism (both terms can be used interchangeably) is often wrongly looked upon by Asians as sexual debauchery. What most Asians don't understand is naturists usually go to nudist beaches with their families. We bring our children along. That's because there is nothing sexual about nudism. As I have said elsewhere in my blog, I'm a naturist for only one reason. I find it totally unacceptable that any part of my God-created or nature-formed body (depending on your religious persuasion or the lack of it) should be looked upon as indecent, obscene or so inappropriate that it has to be covered up. But I do observe social convention and more importantly, the law of the land and will not go naked in public not just because the law prohibits it but because I don't want to offend my fellow men.

What's the difference between me and the people caught in the controversy in Penang? They were nude on a beach and so was I. I'll be going home with a lovely tan and a wonderful experience while they are in the soup. It's a small and trivial matter but the Penang authorities have politicized it. If only the Penang naturists had come to Croatia or anywhere else in Europe where people generally have a more well-adjusted view of the human body and do not treat it as a sex object which, I imagine, is what a sex-crazed, pornography addict would do.


EDITOR: I should add that in May this year (the same month that the Penang event was held and by the way, the correct name for the Penang event is the Penang International Nude Games Extravaganza 2014), I was at a naturist resort abroad which I have since discovered is the world's 8th best naturist resort. Again, I came home with a wonderful tan and lots of memorable photos which I can share with friends and relatives. Just imagine, in the space of just a few months, I've been to the 8th world's best naturist resort and the 3rd world's best nudist beach and I'm none the worse for it. I am saying all this in the hope that someone will knock some sense into the heads of the Malaysian police. There are lots of nudist beaches and resorts all over the world and what the naturists did in Penang was really nothing at all and it can in no way hurt your country. On the contrary, it's good for tourism. Instead of harassing the participants of the Nude Games, the Malaysian police should channel their energy into tackling the many major unsolved crimes that the police have been too lazy to look into. Don't go after the nudists in the hope that the public may overlook your legendary incompetence.