Migrants, church may end Malaysia govt's Borneo vote bank
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Buy SPH photosKOTA KINABALU, Malaysia (REUTERS) - Housewife Fawziah Abdul wants to thank former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad for making her a citizen 10 years after she illegally slipped into Borneo from the southern Philippines in search of a better life.
The 50-year-old lives on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Malaysia's Sabah state, where her tin-roofed shack jostles for space with more than 1,000 others in a slum where children play beside heaps of rubbish.
She is hopeful that her three children will get a new home and identity cards if she votes for the government again.
With a general election due within seven months, the 13-party ruling Barisan Nasional coalition is banking on Sabah and neighbouring Sarawak state on Borneo island to prolong its 55-year grip on power.
