In Chapter 1 titled “Sharing Experiences and the Early Years” of the book “Higher Education in Malaysia: Personal Experiences and New Perspective” authored by eminent Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Anuwar Ali - it reminiscence upon me a story about a carpenter called Shih who comes across a massive oak tree at my village mosque. The tree is so large that hundreds can rest under its shade, yet the carpenter ignores it. When his apprentice asks why, Shih explains: “That tree is useless. A boat made from it would sink, a coffin would soon rot, a tool would split, a door would ooze sap, and a beam would have termites. It's worthless timber and is of no use. That is why it has reached such a ripe old age.” In the same vein, the simplest, and yet most cogent, definition of classic could be: “Human culture that has been able to reach ripe old age.” But what is the use of classics? For me, ancient wisdom remains vital because it preserve responses to human problems and conditions that are not fundamentally bound to any particular historical era. Therefore, the answers given throughout the ages are significant even today. The role of wisdom leadership is to contextualize it.
I agree with Tan Sri Anuwar that every civilization possesses its own inherited corpus of cultural patterns and that represent humanity. Thus, they portray themselves as ‘wisdom’, and their culture as ‘universal human civilization’. Therefore, one of the principal tasks of classic wisdom studies at this historical juncture lies in bringing the different classics of different civilizations into dialogues.
The 2nd Wisdom Malaysia Conference (WMC) 2026, bringing together more than 200 scholars and practitioners on 05-06 August at Sheraton Imperial KL, explored how Malaysian cultural values and development experiences can offer fresh perspectives on some of today's shared global challenges. Today, the world of work needs more dialogue than confrontation and more understanding than prejudice. What Malaysian culture addresses are some of the universal questions facing humanity. It is not a relic in a museum, but living system of wisdom that continues in the modern world.
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