There are several ways to achieve what you are trying to do.
In this case, it looks like you are using jsp, so you can just set the selected value and display the string on the server side without using javascript.
<select class="perms" name="perms" multiple="multiple">
<% for(String permissionStr : permission) {
String selectedStr="";
String displayValue=permissionStr.toUpperCase();
if("all".equals(permissionStr))
{
displayValue="ALL Permissions Allowed";
selectedStr="selected='selected'";
}
%>
<option value="<%=permissionStr%>" disabled="disabled" <%=selectedStr%> ><%=displayValue%></option>
<%}%>
</select>
If you want to install it using javascript / jquery, one way is to add an identifier to each select box, e.g.
<select class="perms" name="perms" id="perms<%=user%>" multiple="multiple">
<% for(int i=0;i<permsList_folder.size();i++){%>
<option value="<%=permission.get(i)%>" disabled="disabled" selected="selected"><%=permission.get(i).toString().toUpperCase()%></option>
<%}%>
</select>
id
$("#perms" + user).multiselect(...);
( java 1.5) 's' 'List' , , , .
<%!
List<String> permissions = new ArrayList<String>();
%>