In a report published by Chinese-language Sin Chew Daily on March 8, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying that he is "not afraid of being accused of nepotism" over "his son's achievement in business".

According to the daily, Abdullah said the achievements of his only son Kamaluddin is "entirely the result of his hard work" and that he has never used his position to grant contracts or instructed others to do so.

The Cambridge-educated Kamaluddin, 36, was recently embroiled in an international controversy when one of his companies - Scomi Precision Engineering (Scope) - was accused by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British Secret Intelligence Service (also known as Military Intelligence Section No 6 or MI6) of manufacturing and transporting uranium-enrichment centrifuge parts to Libya.

According to Western reports, the 25,000 units of centrifuge parts manufactured by Scope in a purpose-built factory in Shah Alam were intercepted by Western agents in the Mediterranean last October en route to Libya. At the time of interception, the units were loaded in five containers.