Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has again jumped to his son-in-law's defence, this time in an interview with Bangkok Post .

He told the Thai newspaper's editor-in-chief Pichai Chuensuksawadi that "the old man practically smashed Khairy's pot of rice," referring to former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's scathing attack on Khairy Jamaluddin.

"That's something about which I am very sad. He has sold his interest in (merchant bank) ECM Libra (Avenue). Sold it at a loss. Now he has some debts to settle," lamented Abdullah in the interview at the prime minister's residence in Putrajaya.

The 31-year-old rising star in Umno had borrowed RM9.2 million to purchase a stake in ECM Libra.

However four months ago, he had to divest his shares following intense political pressure, especially after Mahathir accused his handpicked successor of nepotism.

In August, the Umno Youth deputy chief sold his entire stake of 10.2 million shares - representing 1.23 percent of ECM Libra - for 65 cent a share, which he bought at 71 cent a share last December.

Among the questions raised was how a young man like Khairy was able to borrow so much money to buy his ECM Libra shares.

In addition, less than a month after Khairy's direct stake in ECM Libra, the government approved a proposed merger between the company and government-owned financial services company Avenue Capital Resources Berhad. The merged entity is known as ECM Libra Avenue.

The deal raised eyebrows and has since led to questions of whether conflict of interest took place since Abdullah is also the finance minister who oversees government-linked companies.

What the hell are you talking about?

Abdullah revealed in the interview which was held in Putrajaya that he had told Khairy he could not dabble in both politics and business at the same time.

"Khairy studied economic philosophy at Oxford. He was going to work in Hong Kong but it was too far away. Then he decided to go to Singapore. By that time, he was already in Umno Youth," Abdullah said of his son-in-law, who is married to his only daughter, Nori.

"I posed him a question: 'Are you going into politics or are you going into business?' You cannot do both together, especially if you are going to operate in Singapore. That was the time when he was offered to join ECM Libra. That was the time they made all sorts of news about him.

"I thought, what the hell are you talking about? They made all sorts of noise so as to disqualify him. To make him scared. As a merchant banker, his company was doing well. People were asking him to do all sorts of things. It is very unkind," he said, appearing to lose his cool.

Abdullah also said that he was "saddened" by the criticism leveled against him and his family.

"I mean, you have freedom to speak. But not freedom to rubbish them, attack them. Not to tell lies. Not to slander people. That's not freedom of speech.

"You want to speak the truth, by all means, I have no problem. You want to tell me something's wrong somewhere, tell me. Tell the leadership the truth. I am happy for people to help me see things that are not doing well."

Attempts to bring me down

The prime minister also defended his son, Kamaluddin, who has become one of the country's richest men in recent years through his majority stake in fledgling oil-and-gas company Scomi.

"l think the accusations of nepotism against a leader is one way of bringing him down, of eroding his credibility. They will do anything. My son is a lawyer, he knows everything, that his father is the prime minister.

"He was in oil and gas. He worked overseas. He's got 35 locations overseas. He got some contracts with (national oil company) Petronas through open, international tender. And he offers the best terms. That's what he does.

"And he bought some companies which he wanted because of their engineering capabilities, machine-tooling capabilities. He does not build the company organically, he goes for mergers and acquisitions. That's his style of business.

"Although many people have come and asked him to go into joint ventures with government-linked companies, he says 'No, I have enough money, I am rich'."

No so snap polls

Meanwhile in a Bloomberg interview, Abdullah ruled out calling for an early general election by next year as speculated by many.

He said that the elections won't be anytime before 2008 as he needed time to battle corruption and muster support.

"Next year is too early. I have to prove that a lot of things can be done and have been done and we have succeeded," he is quoted as saying in the Bloomberg interview today.

He also admitted that it has not been easy to totally eradicate corruption.

The government must call the next general election by early 2009.