COMMENT | I spent some time in Malacca the last two weeks, and being there I was constantly reminded of characters from Sulalatus Salatin (The Malay Annals) and Hikayat Hang Tuah.

The history of Malacca with its legendary princes and warriors is actually more storied than what meets the eye.

One hard-to-miss figure is the sagacious Bendahara Tun Perak.

While popular stories paint him as sensible and wise over and against the scheming palace ministers - it was he who hid the framed Hang Tuah awaiting to reveal him when Jebat revolted - Tun Perak had a difficult early life.

He grew up in one of the most tumultuous times of the Malacca sultanate. He was a youth when the third Sultan of Malacca, Muhammad Syah, died. Through the cunning plot of the late sultan's Rokan princess wife, the throne went to her own son Raja Ibrahim bypassing the older prince Raja Kassim.

The throne then was effectively under the control of the Rokan clique.

Two years after his ascension, Raja Kassim with the aid of his uncle Seri Nara Diraja staged a bloody coup and took the throne of Malacca...