cucuan
12-07-2005, 09:39 AM
I bet many of you would not know what FRU stands for. It’s the Federal Reserve Units (or in Hokkien we call them “Ang Tow Ping”). It is part of the Police Force and it was formed basically to deal with riots. The men are all trained in unarmed combat and normally when they are on beat duties they only carry batons. When handling a riot the men would carry rattan shields and canes. The FRU proved to be very effective in the 60s and the 70s to deal with gang fights in big towns like Ipoh, KL and Penang. In those days gang fights were quite similar to those that you see in some of those Hong Kong movies. These people fought with parangs, bicycle chains and samurai swords and there would be reports of fatalities and injuries in the local papers.
During my days in Sitiawan, we do see the FRU patrolling the streets at night once in a while. Every time when they are in town words would go round that the Ang Tow Pings are around and those young men who were fond of wearing drain-pipe pants would not dare to go out at night. What I have heard is either the FRU people would cut these drain-pipe pants along the sides or of some being slapped but not of anyone being “walloped”.
These days we don’t see them around anymore.
cucuan
During my days in Sitiawan, we do see the FRU patrolling the streets at night once in a while. Every time when they are in town words would go round that the Ang Tow Pings are around and those young men who were fond of wearing drain-pipe pants would not dare to go out at night. What I have heard is either the FRU people would cut these drain-pipe pants along the sides or of some being slapped but not of anyone being “walloped”.
These days we don’t see them around anymore.
cucuan