I REFER to the report "MyKad, MyCard or KadSaya?" (NST, Oct 5) highlighting Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Datuk Rais Yatim’s concern over the proliferation of terms where Bahasa Malaysia and English are mixed or used together.

Specifically, the article used the example of MyKad, a name that "may be changed as it is considered bahasa rojak and deemed inappropriate".

I would like to point out that the name MyKad is not bahasa rojak.

In this particular context the "My" in MyKad refers not to the English word denoting possession, but refers instead to the country code allocated to Malaysia by the International Association for Standardisation (the ISO 3166 list).

Therefore, MyKad is a brilliant choice as it connotes the idea of a Malaysia (identity) card.

We have been fortunate to have been allocated such a nice country code as MY. This code is versatile enough to be used in different contexts, and it is a shame that some people can only understand it in one dimensional term.

I sincerely hope that Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, which has been appointed to the role of "language police", will not tamper with the name MyKad, and above all, not replace it with the name KadSaya, which is not in keeping with the original intent behind the name.

Perhaps to avoid MyKad being misconstrued as KadSaya, it could be amended to MYkad.