Learning from the Perak Man

IN Malaysia, politics is the hottest topic but archaeology is not. In Malaysia, sustainability is the buzz word in universities and among climate change fighters, but the significance of the oldest discovered skeletal remains of a human being does not make headline news or get buzzed about on social media. Why is this so?

In this article, I would like to paint a different picture about the 10,000-year-old Perak Man – discovered in Lenggong, site of the oldest known place of human activity in the peninsula – and what he could teach us about modern day politics and the idea of sustainability.