It was no different at this year’s Merdeka Day parade in Putrajaya as the country celebrated its 66th year of independence from British rule.
The tailor – renowned for stitching countless uniforms for the military and other enforcement agencies for the past four decades – is often a star attraction himself with his striking patriotic outfit, and this year it was complete with his”Malaysia Madani” kullah (conical headgear).
School dropout Jamil, who will turn 64 on Oct 24, is very much alive in the trade established in Kuala Lumpur by his father, Abdul Hamid Hussin, in 1950.
“Tailoring was a signature trade handed down to my father by my maternal grandfather, Sufi Abdul Rahman, who picked up the skills just after World War I, in his hometown of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
“Naturally, my father mastered the finer points when he migrated to Kuala Lumpur to establish the Malayan Signals Corporation Tailor outlet at the defence ministry on Jalan Padang Tembak.
“I intend to make good the family’s century-old traditional business for many more decades, now that my son, Fawad, 29, has been groomed as the heir apparent,” Jamil said, adding that he renamed the outlet Jamil Hamid Tailor in 1978, when he was 19.
He said he established a second outlet, JMF Tailor, at the Johor Military Force camp in Johor Bahru in the 1990s, at the encouragement of the late Sultan Iskandar Sultan Ismail.
Jamil was later bestowed the Setia Mahkota Johor and the Johor sultan’s coronation medal.
He said he went on to sew hundreds of thousands of uniforms for servicemen, from privates to generals, dignitaries and royals.
Looking back, Jamil said his grandfather had arrived in Malaya just before World War II in 1939 to specialise in military uniforms and ceremonial jackets.
However, following the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the family first moved to Karachi and then to Lahore in Pakistan.
Jamil grew up at his birthplace, Gujranwala in Lahore, and by age six, accompanied his mother, Sharifah Begum Abdul Rahman, to Kuala Lumpur in 1964.
“My studies were erratic and before I knew it, I had left school to become my father’s understudy at his tailor shop,” he said, adding that he found great satisfaction in providing an essential service to the security forces.
“We must all work diligently for our country that has been blessed by the Almighty as a peaceful and progressive nation.
“As stakeholders, instead of just chasing personal wealth, everyone must ensure racial unity and harmony, especially in challenging times,” he said.