Kuala Lampur, Aug. 18 -- I teach politics, and I have never believed that politics can be understood without history. Institutions, identities and the way we see ourselves as a country all come from somewhere. That is why I get angry when I see how easily we treat heritage as something disposable.

We talk so much about nation-building, belonging and identity, but we are still lousy at protecting the physical traces of the histories that made Malaysia what it is. Old buildings, archaeological sites, prisons, temples, caves, cemeteries and neighbourhoods are not just old things standing in the way of something new. They carry memory. They tell us who was here, how people lived and what this country has gone through. Once they are gone, the...