The More The Merrier

10th Para Brigade Commander Brigadier Khairul Azmizal Ahmad Natal checking the soldier conducting the parade for his visit on March 19, 2021. He is wearing the No 5 digital pattern BDU while the soldiers are wearing the No. 1 dress. BTDM

SHAH ALAM: Back in August last year, I wrote about a request for bid (RFB) for a total of 301,950 No 5 digital pattern BDUs for the Army, for a period of three years. The RFB itself was a replacement for similar tender for the same number of BDUs, published a month earlier but later cancelled..

It appears until now the tender has not been decided yet the same like the RFB for digital pattern webbing published almost at the same time.

The two officers on the right and left are wearing the No. 3 dress while the female officer is wearing a No. 2 dress. Picture used for illustration only. BTDM

It is interesting to note that at the recent DSA 2022, Jakel Trading Sdn Bhd was awarded a RM29 million to contract to supply the No. 3 uniform (office wear) for the Malaysian Army. Jakel Trading as you are probably aware was awarded the contract to supply the digital pattern BDUs to the Army back in 2013 which resulted in a lot of colourful rumours back then. As usual the truth is more mundane!
A soldier wearing a digital pattern BDU preparing to fire the FN Minimi, the standard belt-fed LMG of the Army. BTDM

Anyhow it appears as the major contract for the digital pattern BDUs has not been finalised – your guess is as good mine for the reason. As we wait for the tender announcement or not, the Army has issued at least three separate contracts to three different companies, this year, to supply 2,564 combat uniforms, for a total number of 7,692.
Army officers in the digital pattern BDUs shooting Glock pistols during a handgun shooting match in late 2020. Tentera Darat

The last company to be given the contract is Golden Rank Industries (M) Sdn Bhd with the LOA listed at RM474,340. The other companies are Pakaian Saling Erti for the RFB issued in February, this year for a LOA of RM449,982. For the RFB issued in January, this year, Persada Klasik Sdn Bhd for the LOA of RM424,817.25. I am guessing the more, the merrier.

— Malaysian Defence

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Shah Alam

11 Comments

  1. Different tender winning companies, but all uniforms are basically from same supplier,

    PT Sri Rejeki Isman, Indonesia.

    Need to share middleman profits with more parties it seems.

  2. Never heard of those others but IINM Jakel has their own factory to produce many of their inhouse brand clothes, perhaps likely the same place that produces army wear.

  3. Joe,

    Jakel used PT Sri Rejeki Isman (SRITEX) to make all the uniforms. Those uniforms are completely made in indonesia.

    PT Sri Rejeki Isman (SRITEX) also made a lot of military uniforms for more than 30 countries such as UK, Germany, Austria, Philippines, Kuwait, UAE

    https://www.malaysiandefence.com/indonesia-sojourn/

    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUKL3N0LT0PB20140224

    http://www.kemendag.go.id/id/photo/kunjungan-para-perwakilan-perdagangan-di-luar-negeri-ke-pt-sri-rejeki-isman-tbk

    http://m.antaranews.com/amp/berita/590263/sritex-pasarkan-seragam-anti-nuklir-ke-jerman-malaysia

  4. Pakaian Saling Erti was the company that supplied most of the uniforms for Mindef prior to Jakel as well as other stuff. Heard a lot of stuff about them but mostly not meant for public consumption. Dont know about the other companies.

  5. Care to share more about PSE? I believe the owner of PSE is also the one behind JF-17 bid for RMAF, before china told pakistan not to offer the JF-17 to Malaysia.

  6. I see. Before Jakel, many of the mil wear suppliers are totally hush hush even those in Kompleks Pertama are zipped about their suppliers. I don’t really notice them during DSA except for Jakel which went big on promo both in defence exhibits and also their civvie businesses (ie Jakel Mall). The thing is, I been trying to find the Pantone colours for TDM camo pattern but so far nadda.

  7. Gonggok – “Need to share middleman profits with more parties it seems.”

    How else a birokrat going to earn their paycheck?

    Now they can pat themselves at the back for a job well done. The contractor number had increase, crony capitalism, corruption index geni coefficient & income disparity is reduce on paper at least & higher number of people entering the T10 group.

  8. @5zaft
    There are no foolproof system, we can just hope something better than before. We could enforce it that they must be Made in Malaysia but then they will charge 200-300% markup due to higher production cost, factory cost, manpower, etc, unlike now when open tendered out the prices would be lower and more competitive but at the same these suppliers will find the cheapest source of labour that is from Indonesia.

    Whichever direction we choose there will be certain give & takes we don’t like. If we can stomach the markups and pay for inefficiencies of local manufacturing, sure go ahead as that still create jobs for locals. But if we cannot afford it, then we have to accept the source of make would be anywhere cheaper than Malaysia. At the very least, crony capitalism are more spread out and no longer concentrated onto certain number of big cronies.

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