Every Chinese New Year, children and unmarried adults would be given angpaus by elders or married couples as a symbol of good luck and fortune for the new year.
Ironically, these auspicious packets caused a group of men to be handcuffed after they allegedly threatened an MP over the amount of money given to them.
Group of men allegedly threaten Sarawak MP over RM5 angpau
Taking to Facebook to share the encounter, Julau MP Larry Sng wrote that on Feb 11, he was giving out RM5 angpaus to children merely for luck and preservation of Chinese custom during house visits and that he never intended to give it to adults.
“At 12:30pm, I came across the gangsters at an open house and they asked for angpows. I told them that it was small money but since they insist I would give it to them for luck.
“After 20 minutes, the head of the gang returned an angpow and stuffed RM20 in it,” he wrote.
Hours later, four men surrounded Sng as he was leaving the Pakan district officer’s house and told him the RM5 angpau was way too little and expressed their unhappiness.
Sng tried to placate them by promising to give them a bigger angpau next year but they demanded RM500 from him, to which Sng agreed to bank it in to someone they knew.
As I entered the car, they refused to disperse and they started arguing with my supporters, to the point of pushing Tuai Rumah Empi to the ground.
“For my personal safety and for those around me, I went straight to the police station to lodge a report,” he wrote.
Arrested for criminal intimidation
NST later reported that the men were eventually nabbed by police the next day after the police report was made.
Julau district police chief Deputy Superintendent Andam Sulin said in a statement that the men have been remanded for three days.
The case is currently being investigated under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation which provides for a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or both if convicted.
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