Worried that the term 'i-pass' might be confused with PAS, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi spontaneously changed the name of the smart identity card to be issued to foreigners and others.

After seeing the samples of the 'i-pass' at a function today, the minister decided to call it 'i-kad' instead and told reporters present to forget about the original name.

“It is i-pass... that's spelled i-p-a-s-s and not i-p-a-s,” he said earlier in his speech, before deciding a while later that a name change was an even better idea.

Zahid didn’t spell the new name out for reporters, saying it may as well be ‘i-kad’.

The government has decided that all 2.5 million foreign workers in the country would have to pay for the new 'smart' identity card to be exclusively printed by Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Bhd (PNMB), which has its beginnings back in 1888. PNMB was corporatised and came under the Finance Ministry in 1993.

The process will start with foreign workers, but the government plans to eventually issue the ‘i-kad’ to all foreign students, volunteer corps, civil defence group J-PAM and Rakan Cop.

NONE"The prime minister has decided that PNMB will be the maker of the new card to be issued to all foreign workers in Malaysia," Zahid said to loud applause and cheers from some 100 workers gathered around the PNMB printing plant.

He said the government wanted to help push up workers’ salaries at PNMB and promised that the national corporation would have turned in RM50 million in profit by the end of 2014, with RM500 million in revenue.

"When this is achieved, I will order everyone to be given at least three months’ bonus!" Zahid said, sparking an even louder applause from the audience.

Later, at a press conference, Zahid confirmed that the decision had the blessing of both Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin.

The first batch of 646,000 i-cards with biometric data and colour, coordinated according to work sectors, will be issued to foreign workers from Nov 15.

Zahid said the police would then step up a crackdown on illegal workers in Malaysia.

Instant check on status

He said that with the ‘i-kad’, the police could instantly check on the status of foreign workers and this would help eliminate the presence of unregistered foreign workers in Malaysia.

However, he refused to entertain Malaysiakini's question on how much it would cost each worker and when asked how this was tied up with the '6P programme', the minister simply waved the questions away.

Zahid visited the printing press that has in the past printed most of the government’s forms and publicity materials.

It is now transforming into a book printer, besides also being the main producer of identity cards and certificates for the BR1M handout scheme and student book vouchers.

Most recently, PNMB became the second biggest printer of the Quran in Asia, after a printing complex in Medinah, Saudi Arabia.

Explaining the reason for his visit, Zahid said it came under his purview, as the Home Ministry has been tasked to ensure that accurate and proper copies of the Quran are produced.

PNMB stressed  that all its workers working on the Quran prints were “100 percent Muslim”.

Zahid also launched an interpretation series of the Quran by AR Rahman.